


Angst with a Happy Ending

by Rykeral



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Happy Ending, Mistaken for Being in a Relationship, Paparazzi, Social Media
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26641621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rykeral/pseuds/Rykeral
Summary: A picture of Supergirl with lipstick on her cheek prompts a manhunt into the identity of Supergirl's girlfriend. Naturally the internet sleuths figure out that Lena Luthor owns the exact same shade, and the masses delight at this turn of events. Kara....isnt so sure. Yeah, it would be great if Supergirl and Lena dated, except she is Supergirl, and she certainly isnt in love with her best friend. Turns out, only one of those was true.ORMy contribution to the SCBB!
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Kelly Olsen, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 57
Kudos: 726
Collections: Supercorp Big Bang 2020





	Angst with a Happy Ending

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! Welcome to my contribution to the SuperCorp Big Bang 2020 Challenge! I have been so excited for this event and I'd like to thank the mods who organised, the writers and artists who participated, and of course the viewers! It has been a blast and I hope you all enjoy the amazing talent we have in the fandom! Dont forget to pop into the ART threads to see the amazing skill there, and, as always, let the creators know what you think!
> 
> My thanks to my Beta, MemeQueen :) You are a darling. Mwah!
> 
> And be sure to check out (and Kudos and comment!) on the awesome art accompanying this fic! Shoutout to @ https://archiveofourown.org/users/HannabeanLynn/pseuds/HannabeanLynn your for awesome art!
> 
> Mwah!

ANGST...WITH A HAPPY ENDING

  
  
  
  


xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx

All great adventures begin drastically. Or, at least, that was what the media would have you believe. A boy finds a droid with a hologram of a beautiful woman begging for help. A young man finds a blue oval shaped stone. Some guy pulls a sword from a rock. A series of murders all with the same name of Sarah Conor. A short man decides to leave his warm and comfortable life to chase a group of slightly taller shorter men led by a giant man. Or, two people coming together on an unsinkable boat. Big, grand gestures of importance – life-changing events that go down in history. Or so television and film would have you believe.

But sometimes it was the mundane things, the easy things, that altered your destiny (or sent you plummeting towards it, depending on who you asked). Now, Kara Danvers (also known as Supergirl, born Kara Zor-El) had a lot of life changing moments. There were memories that would stick with her forever; the day her cousin was born, the day she completed her application to the Science Guild and the day she was accepted, the day her parents sent her away, when her planet blew up, when she landed on earth, when she had her first day of school, the first time Eliza and Alex felt like family, the day Alex called her ‘sister’ and meant it, the day she got a job for Cat Grant, the day she leapt into the sky to save her sister, and the day she proudly showed the world her family crest and announced, ‘I’m here to help.’ They were all equally important and life-changing. Some would call it fate or destiny, but Kara wasn’t sure what to think. She didn’t have the power to change the tides of fate, nor would she want to – the responsibility was too much. All she could do was exist in the present, honour the past and try to improve the future.

Every day came and went as it would, and she tried her best to make sure that she lived in a manner she could be proud of. She spent her days chasing down stories and protecting people; she put out fires, prevented car crashes (when she heard them), stopped muggings and dropped criminals off at the police station. She also made time to visit schools, to talk to people. Why, just this morning she had helped an elderly couple whose son had died of cancer change their car tyre. Supergirl was there for the people, she was here to help. Only, Kara Danvers (and Kara Zor El) didn’t quite have as much time to themselves as sometimes she would like.

Work was great. It was! Really! She was up for a Pulitzer! Which, awesome! And Supergirl was doing her bit like she always did, and people were starting to trust her after Lex and Red Daughter, so that was great. Everything was going great! Just peachy. Honest.

She had no need for more drama in her life, she was barely holding it all together as it was, and it had been hard to get where she was at now. She was comfortable, thank you very much! She wasn’t ready for a grand adventure! She didn’t  _ want _ a grand adventure! But, well, like all those heroes, her adventure started with something grand, something life changing. It was the best thing that had ever happened in her life, and on the surface it wasn’t massive, but to Kara it was. To Kara, it changed her life. And for Kara, it started with a kiss.

A simple kiss. It wasn’t even a good kiss, as far as kisses went, though she wasn’t much to judge. It was fleeting, lips touching with her cheek before darting back, and Lena had smiled and wished her luck. ‘ _ Up, up and away Supergirl. _ ’

They had been slowly getting to know each other after Lex had revealed Kara’s secret and the heartbreak that followed. Kara didn’t like to think about it, didn’t like how her stomach twisted whenever she thought of the look on Lena’s face when she knew, didn’t like how her heart wrenched in her chest at the distance that followed, or how she had cried and cried as she had realised what she had lost. Alex had been helpful in that regard, trying to bring them together, to keep them close through sheer force alone – but, well, even Alex had blanched in the face of Lena’s fury. It hadn’t been pleasant. But, it was in the past!

Kara and Lena had eventually patched things over, with no small amount of grovelling on Kara’s behalf. She had set reminders into her phone to make sure she tried to treat Lena how Lena deserved, she had orders set with all of Lena’s favourite foods around the globe and would fly and get them every week. It was important to her that she show Lena that she was here and that she cared, more than just brushing off what she had done and carrying on as normal.

She wasn’t going to lie, the weight on her shoulders had lifted greatly now that Lena knew and the dark days of being without a certain Luthor-shaped light were behind her. But that didn’t mean she could forget it. Lena had settled herself so firmly into Kara’s life that her monthly absence had been... it had been tough. It had been like the first weeks on Earth, when she was feeling dark and alone, empty and lost. Having Alex, Eliza and her friends around had helped a lot, and Kara didn’t descend back into that abyss, but it had been close. Lena had become so important to her life so to suddenly have her absent was jarring. She had felt like she was constantly tripping over her own two feet. Neither of her jobs had suffered, she was better than that, but that didn’t mean that when she was alone Lena’s absence didn’t feel like a gaping hole.

Where she would normally drop by L-Corp to see her friend, now she stayed at home mindlessly watching reruns of some Australian comedy. Where she would send Lena cute animal videos, now she just scrolled absently through their past chats, seeing the unread messages on her end and cried. She ate a lot. And cried. And she would go between having a spotless apartment and living in a pigsty. It had been hard, but eventually Lena had reached out and Kara had leapt at the opportunity.

It wasn’t easy, and Lena had made many snide comments which hid her hurt. As much as the jabs had hurt Kara, she knew that Lena was just lashing out and trying to release her anger so they could move forward. It didn’t mean that it wasn’t painful to hear them, but Kara was to blame and she would shoulder the responsibility to get her best friend back.

Time had granted them an impasse when Lena had confessed that she was too tired to be angry and too sick of being hurt to want to wallow in it, as easy as it came to her. They had both cried a lot, but they had talked, and Lena knew Kara better than anyone else. Kara had opened up, sharing things she didn’t want to acknowledge in an attempt to get Lena back. Once they had found stability in their friendship a few months down the track, Lena had told her that it wasn’t healthy to force herself to share and that she would start to feel resentful for thinking she had to share with Lena in order to keep her. There had been a bit of that, but Kara had come to find relief in talking about her past, about her present and about her future, as all aspects of who she was. As Kara Danvers, as Supergirl and as Kara Zor El.

Lena had requested (demanded, more like it) that Kara teach her Kryptonese. Kara wasn’t sure as to why she wanted to learn it but was willing to do whatever Lena wanted, to be whatever Lena wanted, in order to keep her friendship. So Lena was mostly fluent now and while her accent was terrible (but better than Kal’s) they spoke when they were alone, or when Kara was on Supergirl duty. It was… Kara couldn’t find words to explain how it felt to have someone to speak to in her native language. A culture was in a language and with Lena, Kara was able to feel that much closer to it.

Lena remembered everything Kara said about Krypton and there was some comfort there that if Kara died before Lena, all of Krypton wouldn’t be lost. Sure, Kal had his own database, but this was different. He hardly went there to read and remember, and Lena would remember for Kara.

They were closer now, closer than they had ever been now that such a big part of her was known to Lena, and it had been like the sight of a rainbow after a flood. She was happy now, truly happy, in every aspect of her life.

She and Lena still had their lunches and Kara (finally!) made some progress in getting Lena to expand her regular palate and delve into the world of pizza. Lena had defended her choice of ordering a couple of slices of Hawaiian, saying that ‘ _ Yes, Kara, pineapples belong on pizza _ ’, but Kara couldn’t deny her in the slightest. Besides, any and every pizza was a great pizza as far as Kara was concerned. It was a Wednesday, just shy of one when Kara was called away.

Lena had taken a long lunch to eat with her, not that two pieces constituted eating, but, it was a win, so Kara took it. Of course, Lena had ducked away into her private ensuite to freshen up her makeup after lunch and to wash her hands so Kara happily finished the rest of the pizza and sorted out the trash.

She had been going to suggest dinner when her earpiece had gone off. There was a warehouse fire down in the industrial district, and with a faint tilt of her head she could vaguely hear the sirens.

“I’m sorry,” she had explained when Lena emerged from the bathroom, straightening up and removing her glasses.

Lena, who looked very pretty with her hair down wearing a black jacket over a white blouse paired with tight black designer jeans, had simply smiled and accepted the glasses Kara offered.

“Keep them safe for me?”

“Of course,” Lena replied, and she ran her eyes over Kara’s suit, causing Kara to straighten under the appraisal.

It was much better now, being able to explain why she had to leave early, why she was late or why she had to reschedule entirely. Not that Lena hadn’t been understanding when she hadn’t known; in fact, she had been easily agreeable to whatever explanation Kara gave her. Kara had wondered why Lena hadn’t called her out on being a shitty friend, but Lena had just accepted her excuses and carried on. Now that she knew though, she was always just a little worried – and though she didn’t voice it, Kara felt her concern. Lena might not have been able to find the words to describe what she was feeling, but Kara would notice the seemingly random upgrades to her suit and to Alex’s tech. It was Lena’s way of saying she cared. In truth, she had always cared and that was why it had hurt so much to know the truth.

But Kara didn’t like to think about that anymore, not when Lena was here now leaning in with a ‘ _ be safe _ ’ and kissing her softly on the cheek.

Kara’s entire body froze and she swore to Rao that time had slowed down almost to a complete standstill.

The faint scent of Lena’s perfume still surrounded her and it slid into Kara’s senses as Lena did; her scent, her warmth, her breath, the faint parting of lipstick on skin, the thrum of her heart, calm and sure, and the air settling in Kara’s lungs, her own heart stopping, before doing a cartwheel and then stampeding.

“Up, up and away, Supergirl,” Lena had smiled then, and Kara had stumbled back in a daze, the beeping in her ear reminding her of a job she had to go and do.

“R-ight. Bye!” And then she had given one of the most ungraceful exits to have ever existed in the history of exits.  _ Seriously _ .

It was fine though. It was nothing big, really. A mere trifle. Friends kissed friends all the time. Heck, Alex had planted one on Lena the other week when she had given her an upgraded gun. It had been messy and exaggerated and Lena had recoiled in disgust but the sparkle in her eyes had said she didn’t really mind the affection. Kara was pretty sure Cat Grant had kissed all of her acquaintances, so a kiss on the cheek was nothing. No matter how her heart was pounding. It was just… odd. That was it – odd. She and Lena had taken months to get to the hugging stage, mostly because Lena was touch starved.

Now,  _ that _ had been hard for Kara. She was a tactile person by nature, seeking physical touch as a way to ground herself to the present and as a reminder that she was no longer alone, lost to the cold, dark expanse of space. She liked to touch people, and maybe she was a bit forward, but most people didn’t have a problem with it. However, Lena did. The first time Kara had pulled her into a hug, the woman had gone rigid, heart beating rapidly, and it had taken Kara a moment to figure out why. ( _ It wasn’t her fault Lena’s hair smelt nice, okay? _ ) And when she had, she had leapt back in apology and started to ramble. Lena had waved off her apology as her being surprised, and it was only after knowing Lena for a few weeks that she realised that Lena wasn’t accustomed to touch.

No one touched her, and she tended to close in on herself when she was around other people. Yet, when she was in business mode she tended to draw the eye as though a spotlight shone down on her. It had taken a few weeks for Lena to warm up to Kara’s need for touch, and Kara had been skittish and unsure about how to act around Lena for a while, but the first time Lena had tilted her body for a hug, asking for affection, Kara had nearly crushed her with her enthusiasm.

That hug had been one of the best hugs they’d had, Lena sinking into her warmth and keeping close, and it made Kara feel… powerful, like she was holding – no,  _ cradling _ something important, something beyond value. It had been a humbling feeling to feel powerful without her strength, to know that she brought Lena that comfort by just being her. It had been something… something very important.

And so it was fine that Lena had kissed her on the cheek, friends did that all the time. Kara and Lena were good friends – the  _ best _ of friends, sometimes referred to as ‘besties’. So it was only a kiss, it didn’t mean anything, and why she thought it meant something was not something Kara wanted to address. Everything was fine. Lena was just solidifying their place in each other’s lives. It was fine. Everything was fine.

It was with that thought that she flew and stabilised the building, and it was good to hear the fire crews cheering her as she settled down next to the chief. She gave him a brief report, noticing his wide eyes but being unsure of the reason and she was a professional, so she didn’t comment. Her hair smelt like ash and she had smeared soot over her face, but that was okay because she had gotten the workers out and kept the fire from spreading. The police had cordoned off the area, corralling curious onlookers in the distance and keeping a news van at bay. It wasn’t CatCo, so she didn’t go investigate and after confirming there was nothing left for her to do, she stepped in for a selfie.

One of the things she loved the most about being Supergirl was the amazing everyday people she got to meet. She made a habit of accepting selfies with all of the emergency crew and today was no exception.

The chief had his phone out and Kara darted in next to him, smiling wide and holding a thumbs up. A few firemen crammed in on the picture with a laugh, and Kara felt it was always better like this; to laugh and smile and feel joy instead of sadness. It meant a job well done, lives saved.

So she was feeling pretty good about herself when she flew back to Lena, retrieved her glasses, and finalised plans for dinner the next day. Lena was busy that night so they rescheduled, but Kara didn’t mind. It gave her time to figure out what food they should eat and what movie she was going to introduce Lena to.

All in all, it had been another great day. Until the next morning, when it all went haywire. It rapidly became one of the worst weeks of her life – and really, how did such a catastrophe start with one kiss?

~*~

Kara knew something was wrong when Alex had rudely let herself into Kara’s apartment at some stupid hour of the morning. Kara liked early mornings, rising with the sun and soaking in its rays as she watched the skyline come to life. Alex was never a morning person, so to see her before the sun rose was certainly a surprise.

Though it must not have been too threatening as Alex had thought to bring hot chocolate and sticky buns with her, both of which Kara took instantly and started to consume.

“ _ Wha’ ‘re ‘ou doin’ ‘ere _ ?” Kara asked around a mouthful of sticky bun. 

“Have you seen the news?” Alex asked in a tone that said she absolutely knew Kara hadn’t seen the news.

“ _ Nmo _ ,” Kara shook her head and took another large bite.

“Well, maybe you should,” Alex trailed off. It was her tone more than her presence here at four thirty-seven in the morning that caught Kara’s attention and she straightened.

“What happened?” She finished her few bites and sat up, reaching for her phone. She’d left it on charge while she slept, so she wasn’t sure why– oh, that was why. In her desire to sleep after her shower, she’d forgotten to check her cable. It had been causing her problems lately, so she had to be extra careful when she put it on charge to make sure it actually went on charge.

Kara tried to turn it on, but the screen remained blank.  _ Oops. _

“It's dead,” she lifted it up and then tried to fiddle with the cable. After some careful maneuvering, a charging red battery showed up. “What happened?”

Alex pulled her phone out and scrolled for a while before showing Kara the screen. Kara was thankful that she no longer had food crammed in her mouth because the headline she read would surely have made her choke.

‘ _ Supergirl Reveals Girlfriend! _ ’

“What?!” She snatched the phone with her super speed and scrolled through the news article and the accompanying picture. It was of her, ash and soot covering her suit and upon closer inspection, a clear outline of lips on her cheek. Lips that Kara knew belonged to Lena.

Kara’s cheek tingled at that thought and she hoped she wasn’t blushing too hard.

The article, and the other articles that Kara found as they popped up, all were of a similar vein. Supergirl had lipstick on her cheek, ergo, Supergirl had a girlfriend. The press was loving it. Kara, not so much.

“Oh my gosh,” she let out a groan and flopped back on the bed. Each of the articles was speculating on her sexuality and who the mystery woman was. It was a  _ mess _ . She let out another groan and Alex sat on the bed next to her.

“It will all blow over, just let it die out.”

With her arm hiding her face Kara felt brave enough to ask, “Who are they thinking?”

Alex was quiet, and it was telling – the silence lingered until Kara grew uncomfortable.

“Alex?” She lifted her arm up and peered at her sister.

“The polls are very… decisive,” she said delicately. “They even looked over the lipstick and found the brand online.”

“Polls?” Groaning again Kara covered her face. “Who?”

Alex took her phone back and tapped away for a moment.

“Well, according to Twitter, there is thirteen percent for Cat Grant, four percent for the ‘badass agent’, which,” Alex’s voice twisted in disgust, “I think is me.”

“Ew,” Kara let out another groan as Alex proceeded to list a few minor celebrities and even the president as options. She was vaguely counting the percentages and knew there was a large percentage missing.

“Alex,” she drawled slowly. “Who else?”

“Um,” Alex hesitated.

“Alex,” she slowly lifted her arm and sat up. “Who?”

“Lena.”

“What?” Kara nearly choked. _Her?_ And _Lena?_ Or, _Supergirl_ _and Lena?_ That was a stupid idea. They would never– They were– It was–

“The polls suggest seventy-three percent support the idea of Lena Luthor as Supergirl’s girlfriend,” Alex confirmed.

“But…” Kara trailed off.

“It’s fine, Kara,” Alex said as she looked at her fondly, shaking her head slightly. “Lena’s team is probably already on it, even this early. It’ll be fine. You and Lena are good now, this is not going to change anything.”

Kara let out a little sigh. “Yeah.”

“Alright,” Alex patted her leg and rose. “I’m going to work, see you later.”

Kara grunted and flopped back on the pillows, waving farewell as Alex let herself out of her apartment. It wasn’t a big deal. It was fine.

Deciding to settle in for a little while longer, she pulled her covers up and closed her eyes. Her cheek warmed in memory and she smiled despite herself.  _ Her and Lena? _ What a silly idea.

~*~

“Did you know that Supergirl spends sixty-three percent of her time flying around L-Corp?”

Kara flushed and lowered her head as her co-workers gossiped about the latest headline and accompanying picture.

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah!” The original speaker had a tablet and was showing it to her friend. “Some nerds tracked Supergirl’s flight patterns and she spends, like,  _ all _ of her time at L-Corp.”

Kara frowned. She didn’t spend  _ all _ of her time with Lena; that would be ridiculous. It was hardly her fault that Lena was in constant danger from others and from overworking. So  _ of course _ Kara spent lots of her time there. She is a hero, after all.

“Huh, so I guess she doesn’t trust her after all.”

The crinkle in her brow deepened, and she couldn’t fight her pout as she skirted past them.

It was all anyone was talking about. On the news, trains, the bus, waiting in line for coffee, taking the elevator to their floor, or walking their dogs. Supergirl and Lena Luthor.

It had started with a kiss – or, rather, the  _ aftermath _ of one. The picture of Supergirl had gone viral, as her rescue photo selfies were wont to, but this time people were questioning the lipstick print on her cheek. The self-titled Superfans had gone  _ wild _ , and the rumours hit the stratosphere practically overnight. People all over the world had started to speculate, dragging pictures and quotes and all sorts of information out into the light. Most of it was absolute drivel; Supergirl had only rescued  _ that _ celebrity once and only brushed shoulders with  _ that _ model while at one of Lena’s galas, so those were easy to dismiss. But the fact that they could prove how often she spent flying around L-Corp was a little harder to brush off and it was causing a divide.

Cat Grant was no longer in the picture to compete for Supergirl’s affections as she was off skiing in New Zealand or something for a while now. That left the next biggest name in National City: Lena Luthor. They were both described as young, powerful in their own way, and ‘had the Romeo and Juliet vibes going for them’. Add that to the fact that they both had saved each other’s lives numerous times and how often Supergirl touched down on Lena’s balcony, well... the rumour mill was churning. The city was abuzz with it, and it seemed like even at work Kara couldn’t escape it.

Grumbling to herself, she kept her head down and closed her ears to anything but her coms and emergencies. She did not want to listen to any speculation of her–  _ Supergirl’s _ love life.

She busied herself with work until lunch when she darted down to Noonan’s, but even there she couldn’t avoid the news. The headlines were still all about Lena and Supergirl, this time with a bit more ‘evidence’ to show their relationship.

As she waited for her drink she couldn’t help but look at the television.

‘… _ to see that Supergirl spends a lot of time circling L-Corp, even more time than she allegedly spent at Catco with Cat Grant _ .’

The two television hosts had clearly been discussing it.

‘ _ Supergirl has given no indication of being sapphically inclined and I think it's unfair to speculate about her love-life _ .’

_ ‘Yeah! Thank you Miss….. Williams!’ _ Kara thinks. It was nice to have someone on her side.

‘ _ But you have to admit, the evidence is….. _ ’

‘ _ Nonsense _ ,’ Miss Williams was protesting against her co-anchor. ‘ _ Lena Luthor is in danger a lot and Supergirl is just making sure she is okay _ .’

‘ _ Or keeping an eye on the Luthor in town _ .’

Kara’s fingers twitched on the bench and it creaked with the pressure.

That was the  _ other _ story going around; that Supergirl was keeping an eye on the city's resident Luthor. Kara knew that despite how many times Lena had proven herself to the city (and the world), people would always doubt her. In the public’s eye, it was a no brainer – Supergirl was keeping them safe from the last of the Luthors.

“Kara!” The barista’s call brought Kara out of her thoughts.

Grinning, Kara grabbed the bag and looked inside at the numerous pastries she’d ordered. She could feel the warmth of the food through the bag and smelled it greedily. Food always made things better.

Thanking the waitress, she walked towards the door and then her comms beeped. She juggled her bags and touched her ear-piece, turning it on.

‘ _ Hey, Supergirl _ .’ It was Alex.

“Hey, Alex. What’s up?”

‘ _ Got a car crash on Rhodes and 5 _ _ th _ .’

“Okay. I’m on it.” She took a moment to rearrange her bag and ducked down into an alley. She was mournful of leaving her lunch, but duty called so she checked the area around her before swiftly taking off her glasses which prompted her suit to materialize. After safely tucking her bag and lunch away, she flew into the sky.

It was easy enough to follow the streets of the city and soon she was hovering above the crash. It looked like someone had just ignored a stop sign and collided with another car, which had pushed it into oncoming traffic.

The car that caused the collision now had a roof that was nearly flat, trapping the driver behind the wheel. The other car must have spun a few times and flipped, but the driver and passenger were both already sitting against the curb with people seeing to them. Civilians were already out and about, directing traffic themselves and trying to pry open the car with their bare hands or spare tools.

A quick scan revealed there was no danger of the cars catching fire, so Kara instead focused on the man still trapped in the car that caused the crash. His leg was broken, crushed in the twisted metal of the car, leaving it trapped beneath the dashboard. He also had a few cuts from the waist up as a result of the smashed windshield and a bloody nose from the air-bags, but otherwise he avoided any major internal injuries.

The approaching sirens got louder as she hovered a moment, and she could see cars moving out of the way for the approaching ambulance.

She set down quickly and after urging the civilians back, she made quick work of prying open the metal and helping the man from the car. He was pale and bloody, but seemed to be okay, if not in a bit of shock.

“Can you let the ambulance know I’m taking him to hospital?” She asked of Alex and slowly lifted off into the sky. Making her way carefully though the sky she touched down in front of National City East, and there were already nurses waiting with a gurney. She also spotted a few paparazzi lingering further down the urgent care entrance. Whether they just liked to wait around hospitals on the off chance that Supergirl would show up or they had gotten news of the crash and figured NCE was the closest hospital, Kara didn’t know.

Her crash survivor was thankful as she handed him over and she made sure the nurses were taking care of him before lifting off.

“Supergirl! Supergirl!”

Wincing, she hesitated, hovering above the paparazzi and waiting reluctantly for their questions.

“What do you say to the rumours of you and Miss Luthor having a torrid affair?”

Kara nearly fell from the sky.  _ Were they always this forward? _

“How long have you been sleeping with each other?” Another one called out.

Her jaw fell open, an image she was certain would be plastered on the front page within a few hours.

“No! I– We aren’t– That’s not– It isn’t– We’re just friends!” She could feel herself getting flustered and was certain she was going red.

“So, you don’t think Lena Luthor is worthy of you?” One piped up from the back, recorder raised.

“No! That’s–”

“So, a  _ Luthor and a Super _ would never happen? You don’t trust her?” A man with a microphone smirked.

“No!” Kara  _ really _ didn’t like paparazzi. Journalism had its own set of integrity and rules. There were principles and lines that could not be crossed, Snapper Carr had taught her that, but these vultures respected  _ none _ of that.

“So you admit you’ve been keeping an eye on Lena Luthor?” The first one asked, notepad already being written on.

“No, that’s not it! You’ve got it all wrong!” Kara knew she was getting flustered now, but mostly out of anger. She never behaved like this and it was very annoying to have someone treat her in such a manner, to accuse her of spying on Lena because she didn’t trust her!

‘ _ Supergirl? What’s taking so long _ ?’ Kara had never been happier to hear Alex’s voice over her comms 

“Yup, I’ll be right there,” she said aloud before smiling falsely at the members of the press. “I’m sorry, duty calls.”

She flew away as fast as she could, face red and heart skipping beats.

‘ _ That could have gone better, _ ’ Alex’s voice was amused, and Kara internally cursed how fantastic Lena’s upgrades to their earpieces had been since now they picked up on  _ everything. _

She let out a groan as she soared back to her lunch. If she hurried, maybe it would still be warm, but she doubted it. She sighed as Alex wished her a good day and signed off.

As she had suspected, her lunch was barely warm and she couldn’t fight a pout as she replaced her glasses and her clothes materialised. Her footsteps were a little more stompy as she returned to her desk, working her way through a sticky bun and sipping on her recently heated caramel latte.

Her latest story was on the new housing division being built specifically for aliens, and it was raising some controversy about prioritising aliens over humans. Kara was trying to get both sides of the story, and although it was a little hard to hear humans talking about aliens getting homes over their own kind, it was a story that needed to be said. Still, she was struggling a little and her keyboard was cracking under the force of her typing.

“Hey, did you see the news?” Pierce, who worked in sports, asked.

Now, when working in the media, it was always a little annoying to be asked that question. Her job, by definition, was to know the news before it even became news, so when someone asked her if she had seen the news she tended to get worried because usually it was something bad. Like, really bad. But since her earpiece remained silent, she was reassured that the city wasn’t in danger.

“No?” There was discontent in her chest and she had a bad feeling about it but she followed Pierce to the main floor and then froze.

‘ _ Supergirl Admits She Doesn’t Trust Lena Luthor. The Super Explains _ .’

The accompanying picture was from a while ago, but there was a jagged line edited between Supergirl and Lena as if to show a split. It was like a trashy tabloid article of the latest celeb hook-ups and breakups, and Kara didn’t like seeing her and Lena there.

“Oh, no,” she whispered, suddenly understanding the ramifications of what she was seeing. Even if it wasn’t true, even if it was being taken out of context, people would still believe what they were told and Lena would suffer for it.

Glancing around, she quickly ducked back to her office and grabbed what she needed. Sure she’d already gone out but reporters came and went with alarming frequency so hopefully no one would notice her absence. Once she was free of the building she took off for L-Corp.

There was a sizable crowd at the base of the skyscraper and she could see camera lenses pointed to the sky, but she paid them no mind as she dropped down to Lena’s balcony. Her best friend was hard at work, head bent over a piece of paper and scribbling on it.

“How many times do I have to tell you?” Lena asked without turning around, though Kara could hear the amusement in her tone. “That’s not really–”

“An entrance, I know,” Kara rolled her eyes and stepped in through the door. Lena had clearly left it open for her and that thought made her smile.

“Did you know that we’re having a torrid affair?” Lena finally lifted her head and turned to smile at her, and Kara was struck by her beauty for a moment. She had her hair up in a part ponytail, a look that would be more suited for Kara Danvers than Lena Luthor, but Kara instantly decided that she liked the look. It was… soft…. and it made her look younger and sweeter.

“Yeah. I, um, sorry,” Kara explained as she ran her fingers through her hair sheepishly.

“My phone has been ringing all morning,” Lena replied but she didn’t sound annoyed, just amused which was a bonus in Kara’s book.

Kara let out a little, high-pitched laugh and winced at the sound. “I didn’t mean it. They twisted my words!”

“I know, darling.”

Kara gave a little, helpless shrug. “You aren’t mad?”

“Mad that half the world seems to think I’m sleeping with Supergirl, or mad that the other half thinks that you’re keeping an eye on me?”

Kara grimaced. “That wasn’t what I said. They caught me! They’re crafty,” her eyes narrowed.

Lena chuckled. “It’s fine, Kara,” she assured with a hand up and shook her head. “My PR team is taking care of it now.”

“Still,” Kara pouted. “I know what they’re saying about you isn’t exactly nice. Sorry.”

“Well, if you wanted to make it up to me,” she trailed off suggestively and Kara leant forward. Anything to help her friend! Especially as this was a mess she had created.

“I haven’t had lunch yet.” Kara gasped, eyes wide in horror.  _ Lena! _ “And I was craving donuts from–”

“From that bakery in Paris?” Kara was already striding to the balcony. How dare Lena not have lunch! It was a very important meal!  _ All _ food was important! Except kale.

“I’ll be right back!” Kara let her words linger in the air behind her as she shot off into the sky. She was careful to keep below the sound barrier as she climbed higher, but the moment she was out of danger she turned and sped towards Europe. The wind whipped at her suit and cape and she was glad she could keep her eyes open to the strain.

She was over the Atlantic and soon zipped up the French coast, keeping an eye out for the Eiffel Tower as a guide to slow her descent. Once above the city she hovered a moment to find the café and then touched down on the sidewalk. There were gasps at her presence and muted calls of her name and she waved brightly to the civilians as she entered the café.

The DEO had given her a credit card, one which could connect to every currency in the world and she whipped it out of her suit as she approached the counter. While she wasn’t technically employed by the DEO, they had reached a compromise; they would see to her needs while she was on duty for them, and any need that arose from her service. That included medical costs, food costs, even a clothing stipend. Of course, everything went back to the finance team so they might be jealous that Kara flew all the way to Paris and didn’t get them anything, so she made sure to get them something too before returning back to Lena.

She caught phrases of French as she stepped into the bakery and inhaled the warm smell of freshly baked bread which made her mouth water. Lena had told her about this bakery and as soon as Kara found herself in the UK, she had darted across the channel to find what Lena had called ‘ _ the best bakery in the world. _ ’ And she hadn’t been wrong. The food had been amazing and Supergirl had quickly become a regular. It helped that she could cross oceans in a matter of minutes.

“Bonjour!” She said brightly as she swept into the café, and the patrons were looking at her with shock while the staff all started to smile. The café was mostly full, tables were packed and there was a long line but Kara didn’t mind as the door closed behind her and she clasped her hands at her back while she waited.

“Supergirl!” They greeted and there were smiles all around and the customers stepped out of the way, gesturing her to the front of the line. Normally she wouldn’t cut the line, but they were offering (they always did) and she wanted to get back to Lena.

The bakery seemed like it had new foods every time she came to visit and she nearly groaned at the sight of a caramel twist with icing and cinnamon. There was a lot to choose from and her stomach growled.

Keeping in mind that she would be taking some pastries for the DEO, she placed her order, and made sure to add one or two of Lena’s favourites. “ _ And can you please put the last ones in a separate bag _ ?” The staff were accommodating and Kara swiped her card before tucking it back into her boot while they got her massive order ready. She’d usually try not to buy out an entire store, but the other people in line didn’t seem to mind.

She took selfies and signed autographs while she waited, content to talk to the civilians. The ones she spoke to were thrilled that she spoke with them in their own language. Kara rather enjoyed speaking to people in their mother tongue, and she always tried to do it when she could. She knew that it was a piece of home, sometimes when home was far, far away. Kara always understood.

Soon the staff were giving her a giant box – knowing that she would carry the lot back across the Atlantic ocean – and she caught a whiff of pastries from the bag they placed on top. She was already weighing the pros and cons of eating some now or saving it for when she was with Lena, and she gave a sigh as she realised she should really wait to eat with Lena.

She was back across the ocean within a few minutes, making sure to hold onto her sweet treats tightly. She made a quick stop at the DEO, leaving the box on the centre console with a smiley face and an ‘S’, before she was slowly lowering herself down onto Lena’s balcony again.

“I’m back!” She sing-songed as she strode back into Lena’s office. The CEO herself was over on their couch with her phone out, waiting for her.

“Did you get the–”

“Two cranberry, apple and custard Danishes coming right up!”

“You’re my favourite,” Lena said with a satisfied groan while reaching out with a napkin on her palm. Kara swiftly opened the bag and placed the first of many sweets to be eaten (mostly by her) on her palm.

It would have looked as though the pastry had just appeared there, but Lena knew better and she smiled happily as she brought it to her lips. Kara zipped to her side of the couch, placed the pastries on the table as though they were a spread (on napkins of course, she’d learnt that lesson the last time Lena’s reports had grease stains on them) and helped herself to a cinnamon cream donut.

“Mmmhh,” Lena moaned happily at the taste and Kara froze with her donut halfway to her mouth. Swallowing, mouth suddenly dry, she tore her attention from the slight frosting of sugar on Lena’s lips and instead took a bite of her donut. “I don’t suppose I could convince you to quit CatCo to come and work for me, flying around the world to get my favourite foods?”

Lena wasn’t serious, Kara knew that, but it was always nice to be appreciated. She grinned and started on another sweet, a plum and port tart which was easily becoming one of her favorites.

“Nope. But you let me know when you want something and I’ll gladly go get it. SuperEats,” she said with a happy smile, glad she could do something to make Lena’s day brighten. SuperEats delivery service was faster than UberEats, that was for sure.

Lena snorted. “Yeah, you do.”

“That wasn’t what I meant,” Kara frowned at her playfully.

“And the fact that there are now three pasties left in a bag of what was twelve?”

Kara looked at Lena innocently. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Mhm,” Lena’s reproachful look was somewhat marred by the smile she gave after.

She busied herself with the rest of her pasty, sighing contently as she took another bite, ruining her lipstick with the dusting of sugar but Kara didn’t mention it. It was odd that it was something she even noticed. Maybe it was because she was more focused on Lena’s lipstick, after everything that had happened.

A few minutes into their impromptu lunch, Lena’s phone started to vibrate. Lena gave it a moment's thought before seeing the caller ID and sighing before answering. “Lena Luthor.”

Kara wasn’t rude enough to listen in to the conversation – she was busy eyeing a very large apricot Danish and wondering if she could fit its width into her mouth with one bite, or if she would have to nibble around the edges and then down.

“Yes. She is. No,” Lena’s voice sharpened and her body tensed, and Kara lifted her head up looking down the pastry she had crammed into her mouth to Lena. Her friend was looking away, speaking into her phone with a hiss, but Kara could hear it even if she didn’t have super hearing. 

“I’ve told you. Issue our statement and leave. I don’t care what those vultures–,” Lena’s hands hand curled around her napkin and Kara swallowed. She was mad.

“I understand that better than most, Mr. Diaz, but my answer remains the same. Yes, thank you. Goodbye.” She hung up with a little more enthusiasm than usual and tossed her phone on the table-top with a sigh.

“Was that about...” Kara hesitated, drawing conclusions from the conversation because she had started to listen in once she realised Lena was mad. It was about Supergirl visiting Lena Luthor after touching down in Paris with, frankly, an alarming amount of pastries. It looked like a date, or so the head of Lena’s PR team said. “Is there anything I can do?”

Lena let out another sigh and turned back to face her, the smile rising easily to her lips and Kara responded in turn. Lena still had some sugar coating on her lips.

“No, darling. Everything is fine. They’ll get over it eventually. We don’t owe them anything.”

Kara gave a little nod but she still didn’t like it. Lena leant forward, eyeing her second pastry with contemplation before snatching it. She was much slower to eat it this time, picking it apart with her fingertips before popping it into her mouth. Kara knew that she wouldn’t eat the entire thing, she’d save some for later.

Kara’s own phone vibrating caught her attention and she dug around for it, peering at the screen. It was Nia.

‘ _ You’re starting to be missed. Hope everything is okay.’ _

Kara frowned and thumbed out a response. It was nice having another reporter in on her secret, especially since Nia had her back at work.

“Work?” Lena asked.

Kara gave a little nod and reluctantly stood. “I should get going.”

“Just tell Snapper Carr I was giving you a quote,” Lena offered as she rose to her feet, wiping her fingers on a napkin before putting it inside the brown bag for disposal.

“Quote?”

“For the new alien apartments in Easton,” Lena gave a little smile as Kara gaped at her. She wondered how Lena had known, but it wasn’t like it wasn’t well known information. The public had been talking about it for a few days. Kara’s confusion must have shown on her face because Lena followed up her statement with another.

“I imagine speaking to a major partner might get your boss off your case?” She then tilted her head in thought before smiling a slow, satisfied smile. “Well, I mean technically  _ I’m _ your boss so take as long of a lunch break as you want. I insist.”

“You’re… you’re funding it?” Kara sat back down on the couch, looking over at Lena with wide eyes. Lena tilted her head and gave a little, confused nod. “I– I didn’t know that.”

Lena returned to her end of the couch, toeing off her heels and curling them under her. She laid her arm along the head of the couch as she spoke.

“The National City Housing Authority has agreed to contribute part of the cost, and the rest must come from public donations,” Lena explained and pointed a finger towards herself.

Kara already knew this as it had been part of her initial research. The local governmental body was willing to subsidize the apartments to a certain cost, one equal to other housing buildings in the region, but the rest had to be matched by either the tenants or by donations which was not counting the price of building the apartments themselves since most aliens had different needs. It was a mammoth project, of which a whole bunch of locals had donated to, but Kara wasn’t aware that Lena had donated.

“How much did you donate?” she asked, eyes narrowed before she realised how rude that had sounded when Lena let out a little laugh. “Wait! I’m sorry! That came out wrong!”

Lena chuckled but shook her head fondly while Kara blushed. She took a moment to wet her lips, finally getting that dusting of sugar. “I know how you meant it. I made sure it met its budget.”

Kara read between the lines. “So you basically paid for it.”

Lena laughed again before inclining her head. “I didn’t want my name associated with it for obvious reasons, but it needed to be done. And since National City has become the de facto alien capital of the world, it needs proper housing for its new residents.”

Her research had said that the initial idea had been formed by a man named Hamish Collins and an alien called B’sheeval, who had met while homeless. Kara remembers how B’sheeval had laughed in his interview, saying that ‘ _ if Collins’ had had it tough then he had no idea how hard it was for the aliens.’ _

B’sheeval was from a planet accustomed to temperatures in the fifty to sixty degree range and struggled with living on Earth because he spent most of his time freezing. He was very intelligent, had gotten employment as an online information security expert for a local bank, but even then he had struggled to afford a home that could enable him to be comfortable, let alone happy.

Hamish had gotten into housing first, and had quietly brought his new friend along with him. With an old laptop B’sheeval had managed to build résumé for each of them, enabling Hamish to get a job at a local fast-food joint while the alien had taken on contract work. Once the money came in, they had been able to look elsewhere for housing. Hamish had the human appearance and mannerisms, so his name was on the lease and eventual home while B’sheeval funded it.

It could have gone very poorly for the alien but Collins, a former US Marine, was a good man and stuck by his friend’s side. He had struggled with the temperature of their apartment and then home, and paying for the extensive heating that was necessary for B’sheeval to live in moderate comfort was difficult at times. ‘ _ You try living in thirty-seven degree heat after coming home from working a twelve-hour shift,’ _ he chuckled to Kara.

They had discussed the benefit of homes designed for aliens specifically many times. If aliens had homes that could provide for their specific needs, then there would be more homes for the human homeless population. A friend of Collins’ had suggested that he start a GoFundMe to support this project, but the goal was never reached. It wasn’t until a local businessman had overheard Hamish talking about the project in a bar that he approached Hamish himself. He asked about it and was so touched by their story that he had offered his help in financing their project. Then it was only a matter of designing the building, getting some land and preparing for the future.

It became instantly clear that Kara’s beautiful souled best friend had heard of the struggles and had stepped in to help. Her heart warmed at the kindness of the woman before her. How did she not see her own light?

Kara narrowed her eyes. “Who did you send?”

“Hm?” Lena asked tilting her head in confusion and Kara might have believed her innocence if she didn’t know Lena so well. Huffing and rolling her eyes Lena looked away with a sigh. “Richard Halt. He’s an assistant for the L-Corp charity initiatives.”

Kara hadn’t actually expected Lena to be behind it, let alone confess to it – they were talking millions of dollars here – and she gaped at her friend.

A crease appeared between Lena’s brows. “What?”

“You… You’re building homes for aliens?” Her disbelief turned into amazement at the woman opposite her. Really, Lena was the most incredible woman and Kara was so lucky to have her in her life. Lena shifted a little, uncomfortable with the attention.

“I overheard a conversation while we were out at the bar and, well,” she trailed off and gave a little shrug, looking even more uncertain. “I asked Jess to look into it and then I handled it.”

Kara hesitated for a moment before dashing across the scant distance between them to envelop Lena in a hug.

“Kara?” She gasped a little in surprise as Kara buried her head into her hair, holding her close at the awkward angle.

“You’re amazing,” Kara told her, not bothering to hide her reverence. Lena’s heart did a little twirl in her chest and she lifted her arms to pat Kara on the back and Kara gave her a final squeeze before pulling away.

“It's really not that impr–”

“Don’t,” Kara interrupted, shaking her head as she scooted back to an acceptable distance on the couch. “Don’t diminish this, Lena. It’s amazing!”

“I– Well–” Lena was a little flustered and Kara took the spotlight of the conversation off of her.

“I live in a rent-control apartment,” she told her, needlessly, and Lena nodded.

“I wouldn’t be able to afford it otherwise. I’d probably have to live with Alex – well, not with Alex, but I’d have to live with other people and, well,” she nearly pushed her glasses up before remembering she was in uniform.

“That would be a bad idea,” Lena finished and Kara blushed.

“I didn’t want Eliza or Alex to have to help pay my rent, they’ve done enough for me.”

“I know,” Lena said simply and there was gentle understanding in her eyes as she gazed at Kara. She had the brief idea that she had been part of the reason Lena had thought of the project, and couldn’t help the warm flare in her chest at the thought. Rao, this woman was incredible. “Humans can live almost anywhere. Give us food, shelter and water and we’re good to go. The climates we can live in are extreme, but with enough thought and resources we can endure. I know that off-worlders have different needs, and those needs cannot be met by themselves. The housing doesn’t exist, and even if it did, they wouldn’t have the money. I’ve simply helped that progress along.”

The warm glow in her chest grew even stronger as Lena spoke and Kara was certain she was grinning stupidly at her kind, brilliant and beautiful best friend.

“You’re amazing,” she breathed and Lena flushed.

“Well,” she looked away, fingers toying with a stray thread on the couch. “I only did what anyone else would do.”

“No, you didn’t,” Kara chastised, knowing that it had taken years before the project had taken off, and it had only taken off because of the kindness of the woman in front of her.

“So, you sent one of your minions to see Hamish and B’sheeval and then?” She prompted, drawing attention from how pretty Lena looked with her cheeks red.

“Richard started to talk to aliens about who was here and what they needed, starting from the bar and going from there. The Alien Registration Act was helpful and I used all of Lex’s and CADMUS’ files to help figure out the rest. Then I had Richard hire an architect to collaborate with Hamish and B’sheeval. We won't cover every new species on Earth, let alone all the aliens in National City, but hopefully this custom built complex will enable those from other worlds to call National City home and to have a place to call their own.”

_ I could kiss you _ , Kara thought to herself before being utterly startled by the thought and the mental image that accompanied it. She wasn’t kissing Lena on her cheek in that image, and that made her blush and recoil, a fluttery feeling in her stomach. Maybe she was just hungry? She shook off the thought.

“You’re remarkable,” she said instead, and Lena met her gaze for a moment before looking away and blushing. She didn’t challenge the compliment knowing that one of Kara’s favourite things to do was go down the list of exactly why Lena was amazing whenever she would try to brush off Kara’s heartfelt words.

Lena was such a complicated woman with many sides, almost like a diamond. Beautiful with many faces, reflecting light but not being a source of it, and never being aware of how she shined. Kara loved each part of her. She loved the CEO – the philanthropist who created new tools to better the world and the people in it while being cut throat to her opponents. She loved the Luthor – the woman who saw what her family had done and rose above it, striving for greatness not just for herself but for the world she lived in. She loved Lena – the woman who would drop her work and come running when Kara needed her and who had never watched Disney movies or played board games but tried because it made Kara happy. There were more sides to her, Kara knew, and she was flattered that Lena trusted her enough to let her into her life and keep her there. She wanted to learn all of them, know all of them,  _ love _ all of them.

Kara was the only one who was able to make Lena blush, usually by her open compliments, and it had taken her a while to realise it was because Lena didn’t think she was worthy of the praise. Feeling slightly smug at the thought she was distracted by her phone again and she frowned.

“I really have to go,” she said and Lena rose to her feet, smiling over at her.

“Thank you for lunch,” she said and her arms flared a little at her sides, asking silently for a hug and Kara was helpless to disobey.

“Any time,” she said as she gave Lena a squeeze, trying to convey how much she cared for her into the hug. Lena grunted a little at the pressure but squeezed her back just as hard with a sigh and Kara pulled back. She took a moment to press a kiss to her cheek, and Kara’s face heated as she pulled back with a devilish smile. Unsure of the reason for the smile, but helpless in the face of it, Kara grinned and started to walk backwards towards the balcony.

“See you later, Supergirl,” Lena was smiling, smiling that smile that she reserved just for Kara. It was a soft smile, one without teeth, and it started at her eyes and lit her entire body with a warm light. Kara would bask in that smile forever if she could.

“Bye, Lena!” She gave a little wave as she jumped back off the balcony and started to soar towards CatCo when the shouting from below caught her attention. Thinking back to Lena’s conversation with her head of PR, Kara dove for the ground.

Landing in front of L-Corp she placed her hands on her hips and stared down at the reporters, who started at her abrupt presence but then started to turn to her. Camera flashes went off in her face and she frowned at the people behind them as they all started to shout.

She held up a hand to silence them, and when that failed she let out an “Oi! Shut it!”

To her surprise, and perhaps to their own, they all fell silent, apart from the camera clicks.

Right. Channel Cat Grant. Channel Lena Luthor.

Taking a deep breath Kara looked over the vultures, who were wide eyed with delight and murmuring to each other.

“Right, I need to clear a few things up,” she started grandly.  _ Channel Cat Grant. Channel Lena Luthor. _

“What’s that, Supergirl?”

“Are you really having an affair with Lena Luthor?”

“Do you think you’re Romeo or Juliet?” Kara frowned at that one.

“Romeo, obviously,” she replied, as though it should be obvious. Lena had the luxurious dark hair, and Kara was clearly the helpless romantic, awestruck by her beauty. She’d seen the movie, she knew how it worked. And besides, Lena was up in her tower all day long, leaving Kara to fly up to meet her – ergo, she was Romeo. This set off another round of murmurs and she shook her head at them.

“Look. Lay off Lena, okay?” Because she was a hero, and that was what heroes did, they protected people.

“I’m not having an affair with her and I’m not keeping an eye on her – well, technically I am because she is stubborn and keeps finding herself in trouble,” Kara frowned and lifted her hands helplessly. “How does one person find so much trouble? And she doesn’t eat! She drinks, like, coffee and that’s all she has! I have to bring her breakfast or she forgets to eat it! Who does that? Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!”

She grumbled a bit more to herself before straightening. She needed to clarify a few things.

“No, Miss Luthor and I aren’t dating and no, I am not afraid of her or that she’ll go evil. She doesn’t have an evil bone in her body, she’s far too nice and too smart for that. We’re just friends who work together and save the world.” She gave a little nod, certain she’d gotten her point across, when a reporter called from the middle of the mass.

“So, you  _ aren’t _ dating Lena Luthor?”

Kara shook her head. “Nope.”

“Then why is there a lipstick mark on your cheek?”

Kara felt the blood drain from her face. A lipstick mark could only mean one thing…

“Golly!” Certain she was bright red, maybe the exact shade of the lipstick on her cheek, she hurriedly wiped it off and let out a strangled laugh.

“Ha, so funny,” she said weakly, certain no one was convinced with her dismissal and she was so ready to get out of here, confident she was making it all worse. This had to be the worst day of her life.

“So, you  _ wouldn’t _ date Lena Luthor?”

Kara’s eyes narrowed. Oh no, she was  _ not _ about to let them twist her words this time. “No. I’m not saying that I  _ wouldn’t _ , just that I’m  _ not _ .”

“I can’t imagine Luthor being a good girlfriend!” Shouted another man and a couple more added a few less than pleasant comments about Lena, none of which were fit for repeating. Kara felt her jaw open with a pop. How dare they imply things about her best friend in the bedroom!

“Hey!” She barked, getting all of their attention again. “That’s my friend you’re talking about!”

“So, you’re saying she  _ wouldn’t _ be a bad girlfriend?” One of them raised their recorder.

“Of course she wouldn’t be! She’s a wonderful person and anyone would be flattered to have her love!”

“How would you know if you’re just friends?” A voice from the way back shouted.

They wanted to know why Lena would be a good girlfriend? Well! Kara mentally rolled up her sleeves. Lena was the best person she knew, and it was about time the world knew it!

“Lena Luthor is an amazing person and a wonderful friend,” Kara took a deep breath and let it out, and with it all of the amazing things she thought about her best friend. Someone out there would love Lena almost as much as she did, she was sure of it – if only they knew how incredible Lena was. 

“She’s kind and smart and funny and has a wicked sense of humour. And she cares! You have no idea what she’s done for this city! For the  _ world! _ She’s always ready to help, to give back to the community. She is gentle and generous and so sweet. She has a cute little laugh when she’s happy and when she’s causing me trouble she has this devious smile. She hadn’t ever seen a Disney movie until I made her watch them, and she cried during the Lion King. Did I mention she works all the time? She gets to work at stupid-o’clock and then leaves at, like, ten! I have to sometimes drag her home! Her favourite colour is blue, and she has a massive nerdy book collection. I seriously think she owns every Star Wars collectible. She’s terrible at Monopoly and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her win a board game, but she’s got a scary poker face. She’s saved my life, like, a dozen times. She made me a new suit and she made me anti-Kryptonite tech and she saved Krypton’s history.”

Kara Zor-El then proceeded to list each and every one of Lena’s quirks that she found oddly charming; about how she had to wear socks to bed, always drank tea to help her sleep, liked to sneak milk from the bottle –  _ ‘I caught her doing that one morning when I needed her help’ _ – and kept a fluffy blanket on the couch instead of turning the heating up. “She doesn’t eat breakfast and she sometimes forgets to eat all day. Honestly!”

Crossing her arms, she glared at the reporters. “And when she does eat, it's this disgusting green stuff! And!” She lifted her hand and pointed to the sky with her index finger.

“She had the nerve to make  _ me _ eat it! Me! I nearly died,” she cried out dramatically, and then realised that perhaps mentioning Lena and dying in one sentence was a bad idea.

“Not literally,” she added hurriedly, fighting the urge to hide her face with her hand when her phone started to vibrate in her pocket. Kara continued, though. 

“But don’t tell her I said that, she’ll make me eat some more!” And, truthfully, Kara would do it out of guilt – or maybe out of a desire to see Lena smile that special smile at her.

“Zucchini brownies are a thing, did you know that?” She asked the closest reporter to her, taking on a very serious air, and curling her lips in disgust. He looked shocked and shook his head with wide eyes. In fact, all of them were looking at her as though frozen, eyes wide and mouths open.

“Well they are! And she tricked me into eating some!” And Lena had, bringing Kara a snack which had looked just like a chocolate brownie and had smelt very yummy. She’d been horrified to learn she had willingly eaten greens, but Lena’s laugh had been worth it.

“She’s evil! Evil I say!” And then she realised where she was again and blushed, “Not that she’s, like,  _ actually _ evil or anything but she’s such a good person and she’s warm and soft and kind and I just want to bundle her up in a blanket and keep her safe from the world because she doesn’t deserve people like you!” She pointed at the man in front of her and he took a reflective step back.

“Calling her names and dragging her through the mud when all she wants to do is  _ help _ people!” She finally took a breath and gave a little satisfied nod at the crowd gathered around her.

“Are you... Are you sure you  _ don’t _ want to date her?” Asked one of the other vultures, looking at her with wide eyes and Kara frowned.

“Huh? Are you trying to trick me?” She demanded suspiciously and the woman quickly shook her head.

“Nope,” she gave a little squeak and tried to merge back into the crowd, who, Kara was proud to say, had fallen respectfully silent at Kara’s outburst. That’ll teach them for not thinking Lena wasn’t the most amazing human on the planet. Her phone was still vibrating and she dug around for it while partially giving her attention to the reporters.

“It’s just... You seem to know her very well for someone who  _ doesn’t _ want to date her.”

The reporter was still pushing for an angle. Well Kara wasn’t about to give them what they wanted –  _ take that reporters! _

“Of course, I’d date her,” Kara said, as though the idea was the most obvious thing in the world. Hadn’t they just listened to her list all of Lena’s important qualities? Why wouldn’t anyone want to date her? It was Lena ringing, and Kara smiled at her phone as she accepted the call.

“Wouldn’t you?” She asked with some confusion and brought the phone to her ear.

‘ _ Supergirl, _ ’ Lena said and Kara could hear her clenched teeth. ‘ _ Shut up and get out of there. Right now _ .’

_ Huh? _ Kara blinked in confusion, pulled her phone away to check the caller ID and then listened again. “What?”

‘ _ You do realise that you’re broadcasting live right now, right? The headline is ‘Supergirl Wants to Date Lena Luthor _ .’

At that, Kara felt the blood drain from her face for the second time that day. “Oh. Oh, Rao!”

It was official. This was the worst day ever.

~*~

“It wasn’t  _ that _ bad,” Alex had started reassuringly and Kara let out a groan, head lying on her arm as she sat at the table. She patted Kara on the back, but Kara found little comfort in her sister’s words. “It’ll be fine.”

“You didn’t just get publicly bullied into announcing you’d date your best friend on national television,” her voice was muffled and her cheek was starting to warm against the cool surface of the table.

“You’re a reporter Kara!” Alex cried out, exasperated. “How did you not see this coming?”

“They were sneaky!” Kara defended with a mutinous pout. “They twisted my words the first time, and I didn’t want them to twist them this time so I thought I’d make myself very clear so that they couldn’t make up lies again because I know Lena’s stock took a slight hit and her PR manager was angry and she had to put out a statement and it makes her look like a bad guy when she’s a good guy but no one in this city wants to believe that all she wants to do is help, and she was so nice and sweet and gentle about it and she wasn’t mad and didn’t blame me even though it was my fault–”

“Kara, breathe,” Alex interrupted and Kara took a deep breath.

“In,” Alex inhaled with exaggeration and brought her arms around her in some semblance of a monk-like posture. “And out.”

Kara let out her breath in a long exhale and frowned as a path of frost spread out in front of her.  _ Oops. _

“Relax,” Alex said, patting her head and moving around to sit at the table with her. “It isn’t that bad. If anything, Lena’s stocks have gone up. Has she gotten in contact with you?”

“I’m a terrible friend,” Kara groaned, fighting the urge to drown herself in the Pacific.

Maybe she could just vanish, live as Kara Danvers and ignore the fact that she had just shared some very private information with the whole world. Sure, it was in an effort to defend her best friend, but still – Lena was an exceptionally private individual, and now the world knew she liked to wear socks to bed, what tea she drank before bed, that she rarely ate breakfast, and fell asleep at her desk with alarming frequency. It would be a source of humiliation for the youngest Luthor, Kara was sure. And it was all her fault. She felt horrible about it. She wouldn’t be surprised if Lena never spoke to her again.

“I told so many of her little secrets to the world,” Kara tilted her head to look over and up at Alex, still mostly mumbling into the wood of her table. “She’s going to hate me.”

“You also told the world that she was kind, saved your life, sweet, built you an awesome new suit, is generous, gentle, has a great smile, and that you love her laugh,” Alex pointed out as she counted each trait on her fingers. “Supergirl said that she would date Lena Luthor. That has to count for  _ something _ .”

Kara flushed and hid her face again, wishing she could hide herself like she had been for the past seventy-two hours since the story broke. She hadn’t even dared ducking out for food as her civilian identity, terrified someone would look at her red face and know she was Supergirl. The world was eating it up and Kara had seen scenes from her speech across all platforms of social media. It was like watching the ending to a story you’d already seen before, dreading the outcome but being unable to turn away.

It felt as though the  _ entire world _ was speculating on Supergirl’s relationship with Lena Luthor despite the denials from them both. Pictures of the two of them, from Supergirl’s first save of Lena at her renaming ceremony –  _ how did people get that particular angle anyways? _ – to their meeting at the L-Corp gala, and a dozen other instances where they had been seen together.

Sure, maybe Kara shouldn’t spend so much time with the CEO while she was on duty, but it was hardly her fault that they kept seeing each other while she was working as Supergirl. Nor was it her fault that Supergirl had been caught looking ‘like a smitten kitten’ at Lena while she waved her hands around in the middle of a speech on her latest scientific breakthrough. Clearly that was the work of someone photoshopping her face because Supergirl was a professional and she did  _ not _ look at anyone with ‘heart eyes’. And doesn’t anyone know how difficult it is to save someone from a bomb? Her hands were in a perfectly acceptable position on Lena’s lower back as she carried her to safety, thanks very much! The comments on that specific post had made Kara blush, specifically the one that said  _ ‘I’d like to have my hands on Lena’s assets – emphasis on the ass.’ _

To an outsider, their relationship was a wondrous one; enemies to friends to lovers, the perfect match, a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. A few pictures had been taken from suspicious angles and Kara had half a mind to ask Alex to make sure someone inside the DEO wasn’t leaking pictures because there was no way a civilian could get a picture of Lena and Supergirl like that. No way!

Kara was also pretty sure that she’d remember kissing Lena Luthor, so there was no way that the picture circulating on the internet was a real one. It made her uneasy, a tightening in her stomach that she attributed to annoyance. Supergirl and Lena weren’t a thing and it was wrong that the Internet kept trying to make it so. She didn’t want to kiss her best friend because that would be weird and the twisting in her stomach agreed with the thought.

Kara fell down the rabbit hole of content surrounding Supergirl and Lena’s relationship and was surprised to see so much in so many different mediums. There was art, music videos, and manips which Kara had learned (through anonymously asking) was a work of cut pictures pasted together. There were even written works about her and Lena– about  _ Supergirl _ and Lena. Kara didn’t understand how people could write some of those things about real-life people and post it online, nor did she understand how people would want to read it. In an attempt to learn about the appeal, Kara had read a few popular works on a more prevalent site and couldn’t help but feel a longing for what the written version of Lena Luthor and Supergirl had found with each other. They were written to have a trust, loyalty and quiet affection that was described as feeling like home. They were also written to have a passion and desire that Kara hadn’t ever really felt before. It left her shifting on the couch, torn between wanting that for herself and wanting it with  _ her _ Lena. She knew she shouldn’t be feeling such things about her best friend, shouldn’t be wanting something she didn’t even realise she  _ could _ want, something that was an option. It felt like a betrayal to their friendship, to everything that was Kara and Lena, so she hurriedly exited the page and tried to focus on something else.

Still, the words and feelings that some of those authors had invoked lingered. She knew that she wanted it for herself and had yet to find that sort of belonging on Earth. The Supergirl in those stories had found something with someone else, something that Kara wanted for herself. There was affection, laughter and an equality that each retelling of their story held; Lena and Supergirl protected each other. They fit, according to tens of thousands of people on the Internet.

After her second night of self-imposed exile, Kara had found herself diving back into those worlds, aching for something she couldn’t name while knowing it was wrong of her to want that but being unable to help herself.

It was a glimpse into what could have been,  _ what could be _ , if only Lena loved her in that way. Because Kara could love Lena Luthor, be it as a friend to stand with her always, or maybe she could love her as a lover did. To go beyond wanting to hold her close, to keep her safe, to want to touch and be touched by her, to have her soul and keep its light safe, to give her strength and love for the rest of her days.

Truthfully, it wouldn’t be that much different than what they already had, but the thought of approaching Lena with her feelings and facing the rejection which would cut Lena out of her life frightened her just as much as the fallout from the Supergirl reveal. Those had been some truly dark days – maybe even the darkest of her life, which was truly saying something.

Kara vowed that she’d never do anything to risk losing Lena again, which had come with another realisation; that she, Kara Danvers of Earth and Kara Zor-El of Krypton, could not live without Lena Luthor. It was then that Kara had spiralled because of course out of the climbing number of published works online, an author by the username ‘ _ SupercorpWriter1 _ ’ had somehow put Kara’s fears, hopes and dreams into a piece online and the universe had conspired to get Kara to read it. Kara felt as though they had taken parts of her, put them under a microscope to analyse and had then published them online for the world to see. It felt invasive, it felt cruel, and  _ it was all true _ .

And then there were the more  _ explicit _ works, those of which had utilized Supergirl’s powers for rather lewd acts. Kara was as red as her cape as she read about how the people of the Internet described her using her super speed, super strength, freeze breath and even her heat vision during sex. According to the legion of Supercorp fans, Supergirl was as impressive in bed as she was when saving the city. It was all terribly confusing and humiliating to think that beyond being a sex symbol, people were writing about her  _ fucking _ (or  _ being fucked by _ ) her best friend. It left her squirming and red because it was wrong that people wrote about them like they weren’t real people, as though they were a commodity to be devoured and didn’t have their own thoughts and feelings.

Even still, there were works that seemed to reach directly into her heart and pulled words from it, golden threads plucked from her chest to cast tapestries of colour across the stars. They spoke of her secret fear of being alone, of not having an equal, of outliving everyone she knew and cared for, of how Lena made all those thoughts quieten, how her laugh made Supergirl’s pain fade, how Lena’s smile made her smile because making Lena happy made  _ her _ happy, how she knew that someone as powerful as she was had her back. Lena Luthor made Supergirl feel less alone.

And then there was the  _ angst. _ Kara’s first friend on Earth, the Oxford English Dictionary, defined angst as ‘a feeling of anxiety or dread.’ The Supercorp fandom – which seemed to grow with each refresh of the page she was on – was  _ rife _ with it. Upon further inspection, it seems that the fandom went back years, as far back as when Lena Luthor had come to National City in the first place. Kara gave one such themed story a shot but nearly threw her phone away once she read it because the last chapter had not ended well for Supergirl.

Some stories also delved into Lena’s side of the relationship and Kara felt guilty as she read about Lena’s feelings of betrayal and heartbreak during their separation, wondering if that was how her Lena felt during their fallout. Reading those parts always reminded Kara that she would be better in the future, if only to ease the ache in her heart at the thought of how truly broken Lena had felt when Kara’s identity was revealed. Kara was eagerly awaiting for updates on some works because she’d become invested in that Lena and Supergirl’s lives, and she knew they deserved the soft and quiet happiness they had found with each other.

Reading these works also made Kara increasingly aware of how empty her own life was without Lena in it, which only solidified Kara’s vow to not let anything risk her friendship with the CEO ever again. It was a simple fact; Kara’s life was less bright without Lena in it. It was all or nothing. From then on, Kara stuck to the ‘angst with a happy ending’ tag to ease the weight in her chest.

Eventually she had returned to the real world of social media to see what the masses were saying because she wanted a less skewed outlook on their entire relationship. Despite it being three days from her second mix-up (and six days from her first), the people were still talking about it. From politicians to celebrities, scholars to teenagers, they had come to one conclusion; few people on Earth deserved Supergirl, but maybe Lena Luthor came close. It was distressing information because Kara had come to terms with her love for Lena, and she was finally willing to call it what it was – and not in the Plato way, more in the ‘ _ I can live without you but I don’t want to’ _ way.

Lena didn’t complete her, she wasn’t pieces of a whole, but having Lena around made everything better. That wasn’t to say that life with Lena Luthor in it hadn’t come with its own complications, because it certainly had but the pros greatly outweighed the cons. As Supergirl, Kara had a steadfast ally with enormous resources and an ability to go into battle for her against entire  _ governments _ . She made her anti-Kryptonite tech (hello new suit!), helped out at the DEO (which helped Kara) and was an all-round good person to have on her side. She was smart, filthy rich and sometimes morally dubious which, according to Alex, was a good thing because Lena was ride-or-die Kara Danvers. Which now meant that she was ride-or-die Supergirl (brief period of heartbreak notwithstanding, but they had moved on).

For Kara Danvers, Lena had already proved she would do anything for her by supporting her against all odds and offering fair but valid advice. For a long time, Lena was one of the only people to simply see her as Kara Danvers and  _ still _ think she was a hero. To Lena, Kara Danvers had been strong and smart and good without all of the superpowers her alter-ego had. It was refreshing because while Supergirl gave her a chance to be Kara Zor-El, Supergirl was as alien to Kara Zor-El as Kara Danvers was. They were all  _ parts _ of her, but so different. Kara Danvers let Kara be her, without the weight of Krypton and Kara Zor-El let her be the hero she wanted to be, but there wasn’t much of an in between. Lena somehow helped her bridge that gap, making Kara feel as though the Kara that spent time with Lena (whom Lena called her  _ hero _ ) was still the girl from Krypton without the baggage.

Kara had always had the heart of a hero, as her aunt had told her, but sometimes she didn’t feel like she was. Sometimes it only felt like Supergirl was the hero, not her. Lena helped her see that just by being Kara – not Danvers, not Zor-El, not Supergirl – she  _ could _ be a hero.

Lena wasn’t her weakness; she didn’t feel weaker around her, she felt powerful but that power came from within her and wasn’t a gift of Rao.

Lena wasn’t her strength either; she had power without Lena and her drive to help people remained even when she didn’t have her superpowers.

Lena was something else entirely.

She wasn’t her Kryptonite, making her weak and breathless nor was she her sun, granting her powers beyond imagination. Instead, Lena reflected her soul magnified a thousand times and lit by galaxies of stars.

The sun was the life bringer – without it, everything would cease to exist but it never saw itself, only shone on others. It even shone on the moon, not offering warmth or life but instead acting as a guide to await the uncertainty of the night, a herald of the day soon to come.

The stars offered something else. Neither warmth nor mirror, they offered their own light to the night, casting patterns of beauty across the sky. A star wasn’t the brightest nor the biggest, but it was unchanging, eternal (for the lifespan of humans at least), and gave off its own light just to bring a little hope to the dark. The stars were intimate, full of stories and hope of the past, present and future.

Kara was the sun; she gave hope and life to millions of people and their light was the moon, reflected back at her. But Lena Luthor was the stars – shining alone, only seen in the absence of the sun, but still burning even as the night encompassed them. Warm, but only to those who could get close enough to touch.

The sun was a beacon. The moon, a mirror. But the stars held a special place in the hearts of all who looked at them, for whom on earth had not gazed skyward in awe? The sun was too much, too bright and powerful. The moon was steady and strong, a comforting sight in the dead of night. But the stars were their own strength, shining all on their own, lighting up the night and casting the shadows away.

Lena Luthor wasn’t her sun; she didn’t reflect Kara’s light. Instead, she was her starlight.  _ Ehl:divi _ .

Kara was in love with Lena. She wanted to know and love all of her, and now the entire world knew that she –  _ Supergirl _ wanted that with Lena. Or, at least, they suspected it. The world had formed an opinion before Kara had the opportunity to do it, and while she wasn’t ashamed of her feelings for Lena she wasn’t particularly happy that it was gossip fodder for the masses especially not since she hadn’t had the chance to speak to Lena about it. The world had taken something personal and intimate and torn it to pieces, analysing every action and word and coming to their own conclusions.

Rao, it was humiliating! She could only imagine how Lena was feeling.

After her faux pas, Kara hadn’t heard from Lena apart from that phone call when she had told her she was being recorded and broadcast live. Kara had crushed her phone in realisation, panicking just a little bit.

Normally she would have no problem in singing Lena’s praises. She was her best friend, after all. And she was a good ally to Supergirl. It was just…. After the first picture of the lipstick, and the internet picking her supposed dating life apart, she’d come to realise that Lena was precious to her and didn’t deserve any of the bad karma she seemed to have inherited from her brother. The only problem was when Kara defended her, it came across as something else. Something  _ more _ . Something that was  _ not _ what Kara and Lena were. It was confusing. She didn’t like how it made her feel, how they seemed to think that Supergirl and Lena were the new ‘it’ couple, and how it made her feel less sure of herself as Kara Danvers. Kara was more important to Lena than Supergirl, Lena had made that obvious before the reveal, and it hurt that the world only seemed to think that Supergirl was the best fit for her as a partner.

After her rant she had instantly known that her words would have been taken out of context – not that the context was much different than the one shown. She hadn’t intended to sound like she was Lena Luthor’s biggest fan and had massive ‘thirst’ (according to Twitter) for her best friend. She had just wanted to show the world what they were missing out on and maybe brag just a little bit. Her best friend was  _ amazing _ and they were all fools for not seeing it. Kara was a little smug and very proud of her position in Lena’s life. She just didn’t want the world to think that she wanted any more than what she had. Her private life was private and it made her uncomfortable to have it talked about in such an in depth, personal manner. Talking about her identity or day job was a little different than pairing her up with her best friend.

She should have realised they were recording, she bemoaned for the one-hundred and forty-seventh time (she had counted). She had to protect Lena and it was all her fault they were going after Lena in the first place, so she needed to correct it. It wasn’t her fault the paparazzi were sneaky and had gotten way more out of her than she was intending. Plus she had to admit that Lena kissing her on the cheek again certainly hadn't helped, though that was probably just to mess with Kara  _ and _ the paparazzi, which would have been funny if Kara had known before she went down to speak to them. Maybe then she wouldn’t have rushed to tell them how great Lena was and practically tell the world that she’d date her. Rao, what a mess!

There was movement to her side as Kara willed the table to consume her, to take her away from her mistakes.

“Look, it isn’t that bad,” Alex reiterated before pausing. “L-Corp’s stock has risen steadily since, and the Supercorp tag is trending as it has been for nearly a week. In fact, most people are being supportive.”

“It isn’t even a real thing,” Kara groaned, barely opening her mouth to speak but Alex was accustomed to Kara-language and picked up on it.

She just shrugged. “Look, you said it and you can’t take it back. All you can do now is move on.”

Kara groaned again. She’d taken time off work, approved mysteriously (she probably had Lena to thank for that) while she hid away in her apartment. J’onn had temporarily taken over Supergirl duties without Kara having to ask – Alex had apparently arranged for her sabbatical from both her jobs before coming over with lots of pizza and ice cream. The first night they had ignored the proverbial elephant in the room and Kara was grateful. She had just wanted to eat her weight in carbs and hide from everyone.

The two were silent for a long while. Alex tapped away on her phone while Kara was trying to decide how she would ‘kill off’ Supergirl and be reborn as a new hero. Maybe she could wear a mask and wig? It would leave the Super-Luthor dynamic behind, that was for sure. And she could pretend she hadn’t just made a fool out of herself in front of the entire world because the world had seen her interview.

“Look, I get it. It’s tough. But it isn’t like it’s not going to blow over. You and Lena have been through a lot. You’ll get over this, too.” Alex. Ever the logical one when she wasn’t involved. But she didn’t get this.

At first, Kara didn’t either. She didn’t want people speculating about her and Lena because it made her feel weird. It had taken a few days of reading comments and written works for Kara to understand the discomfort was because she had actually  _ wanted _ to date Lena, that everything she had told the reporters was true. Then she had been unhappy because no one thought that Lena’s best friend, the CatCo reporter, was worthy of Lena. A superhero had to be, even though Kara  _ was _ said superhero. Kara Danvers wasn’t even on the radar. It was all Supergirl. Strong. Fast. Powerful. Worthy of Lena in ways that Kara Danvers wasn’t. The resentment she had felt for her alter-ego after reading one particular piece had hit her hard and she had to exit the website to try and organise her thoughts. Supergirl was everything Kara wasn’t, and Kara had to wonder how she could ever compete with that. Answer: she couldn’t. It had been a eat-an-entire-tub-of-ice-cream day.

Of course, she hadn’t been able to stay away from reading for long – some of those authors were  _ talented _ and they gave words to how she was feeling. Now she was a mixture of hopeful, disgruntled and annoyed. She was hopeful that maybe Lena felt the same way. She was disgruntled because what could she offer Lena Luthor compared to Supergirl (yes, she knew that she  _ was _ Supergirl, but they were also different). And she was annoyed that everyone else in the world knew before she did and had an opinion before Kara could even come to terms with it and  _ maybe _ act on it.

Kara let out a long grunt, and it was a credit to her sister that she paused.

“How  _ are _ you feeling about all of this?” Alex asked after a long moment, as though Kara hiding from the world for a few days wasn’t obvious enough.

Kara gave a long groan again. How could she give words to what she was feeling? She wasn’t even sure of  _ what _ she was feeling.

“It’s stupid. They’re saying Supergirl is this strong and powerful woman who has saved Lena all those times and is probably the only person in the world that can keep up with her. But _ I’m _ Supergirl, Alex!” She could feel the pout forming on her lips and hid her head in the crook of her arm again. “ _ ‘Supergirl did this! Supergirl is smart like Lena Luthor. Supergirl saved that! Supergirl is strong and powerful, strong enough to protect her. Supergirl brought her food! It’s like Romeo and Juliet! Supergirl saved her life!’  _ I’m sick of it!”

“Well, she  _ has _ done all of that,” Alex offered soothingly, though Kara knew she wasn’t quite sure what she was providing comfort for, but it was the thought that counted.

Kara scowled.  _ She _ was Supergirl.  _ Kara _ had saved Lena Luthor!  _ Kara _ was strong and powerful and had those amazing abilities!  _ Kara _ was that smart! Smart enough to keep up with Lena, certainly!  _ Kara _ and Lena suited the star-crossed lovers' trope better than Supergirl and Lena because Supergirl was a suit, not a real person. Supergirl was a symbol.  _ Kara _ had been the one to take Lena food! And it had been  _ Kara _ who Lena had kissed on the cheek, not Supergirl!

“And yeah! Maybe Supergirl and Lena Luthor have the whole star-crossed lovers thing going for them, but what about  _ me? _ What about  _ ‘best friends who are there for each other and save each other in different ways’? _ What about that trope, huh? How about that!” Trope was another word Kara had learnt. ‘ _ Cliché’ _ . The writing world was full of them, but somehow they all worked; ehe enemies-to-reluctant-allies-to-friends-to-lovers trope was a big one across all fandoms, and the masses felt that it suited Supergirl and Lena perfectly. There had been lots of pieces about that trope, but what about  _ ‘best friends who become something more’?  _ Something  _ better? _ Something  _ beautiful? _

“Lena called me,  _ Kara _ , her hero, not Supergirl!” She lowered her voice from its impassioned rant and let out an exhausted sigh. Feelings were hard. Maybe they could start a sister night at ten in the morning? She was in the middle of weighing the pros and cons of sending Alex out to get some comfort food (pizza, potstickers, chocolate  _ and _ ice cream), when Alex stirred.

“Kara,” Alex’s voice was a long drawl, suspicious but also firm. As though she had come to a realisation. “Are you, perhaps,  _ jealous _ of yourself?”

And that would be stupid, wouldn’t it? To be  _ jealous _ of  _ herself _ ? But, then again, who  _ wouldn’t _ be? It was part of the reason she had almost let go of Kara Danvers to live as Supergirl full time. She hadn’t thought Kara had anything to offer her, whereas Supergirl had adoration, power and respect. Kara had none of that – she was ordinary and unassuming. Lena had helped her see that Kara Danvers was just as important as Supergirl, even though she hadn’t known it at the time. Supergirl was exalted, held above, seen to be worthy of a woman as incredible as Lena Luthor. If Kara hadn’t known the truth, maybe she would even be ‘shipping’ the two of them.

“What? No! Jealous? Who’s jealous? Pfft. I don’t  _ do _ jealous! Maybe  _ you’re _ jealous, huh? Did you think of that?”

Alex blinked owlishly. Kara faltered and deflated. Right, that had gone spectacularly well.

“Denial isn’t just a river in Africa,” Alex said gently once her shock had faded and Kara huffed. It had been a while since either of them had used that phrase on the other.

“I know,” she breathed and took comfort from her sister's hand on her back.

“Lena, huh?” Kara heard Alex run her fingers through her hair and let out a shaky sigh which turned into a laugh. “Guess Kelly was right.”

_ Kelly? _

Kara tilted her head slightly in question.

“She seemed to think you and Lena had… something going on,” Alex said delicately though Kara had a feeling that there was more to it. “From how you both reacted to the split, she seemed to think there was an attachment there beyond friendship. She was the one who first suggested it, actually.”

Was that how it had looked on the outside? Two lovers broken up, pining over each other? Desperate to come back together but too proud, too stubborn to reach out? Too afraid of rejection?

Huh.

Letting out another sigh Kara tilted her head on her arm and looked at Alex, squinting in the sun. Alex was smiling at her gently, head tilted to the side and eyes warm.

“So, do you love Lena?” She asked and then she hastily corrected herself. “I mean, are you in love with Lena?”

The answer was simple. Of course she was.

“Then you should tell her,” Alex suggested gently, obviously seeing the answer written in Kara’s eyes. She also must have seen the rampant fear for she shook her head slightly. “That woman has been in love with you for years.”

_ What?! _

“You don’t believe me?” Alex let out a little sigh, now sounding amused like a softer, gentler version of when Kara had first come to Earth and had done silly things, like trying to put eggs in the ground to grow them or getting her figures of speech muddled. “That woman only smiles for you, Kara. Always you.”

Kara frowned. That didn’t seem accurate. Lena smiled all the time. She smiled when Kara brought her coffee. She smiled when Kara texted her – she may or may not have been on Lena’s couch while Lena was working and texted her because she was bored and Lena had asked for her to be quiet for a few minutes. She smiled when Kara called her, Kara could hear it in her voice. She smiled when Kara dropped by to talk about her day. She smiled a lot, so Kara wasn’t sure what Alex was talking about and told her so.

“ _ Kara _ ,” Alex let out a little sigh. “She smiles because it's you. It’s practically all that woman knows how to do around you.”

“But,” Kara trailed off. Being confronted with something unexpected was always a challenge and as much as Kara wanted to believe what Alex was telling her, she needed more proof. There was nothing on Earth she would risk losing Lena’s friendship for, but if she loved her back, even just a little bit…

Faint tendrils of hope strung in the chambers of her heart, setting out a musical echo in the amphitheatre of her chest. Merely having Lena’s love was beyond what she could imagine, definitely more than what she deserved, but to have it be more intimate than it was – to have it be romantic in nature? Lena already made her heart sing, chased away her darkest days, steadied her fears and soothed her pain.  _ What if she could have more? _

“There is not a single thing that that woman wouldn’t do for you. Give for you. She loves you! Like, is  _ in love _ with you.”

Okay, and maybe Lena had been there for her at every turn, even when Kara didn’t deserve it (especially when  _ Supergirl _ didn’t) but that didn’t mean she thought of Kara as anything more than her best friend. But then again... what if Alex was right? Alex had more experience with human relationships than Kara did, even if that wasn’t saying much. Her gaydar was broken, but Kara’s was non-existent – sexuality just didn’t come up on her radar.

Her and Lena were just her and Lena! They were nights curled up under blankets on the couch introducing Lena to Disney movies and junk food. They were trying out the latest food trends and then going through the drive-thru so that Kara could get the taste of greens from her mouth. They were talking about their pasts and exposing their fears of the future. They were supporting each other through everything, being in each other’s corner, offering advice and comforting presence. They were everything that was right with Kara’s life. If she had to sacrifice one, Lena or Supergirl, then Kara would choose Supergirl.

Alex gave a little grunt and started to scroll through her phone while Kara processed.

Lena meant more to her than being Supergirl because with Lena, Kara was a hero in her own right, without powers gifted to her by the sun but she could also be Kara Zor El, the last daughter of Krypton. Supergirl was a combination of them both but she wasn’t the sum of who she was. She could live without Supergirl if she could live as Kara, and with Lena she felt as though she could.

She could live with Lena in her life, keeping her at arms length and never having her within her embrace, but she didn’t want to consider life without Lena in reach. It just wasn’t an option.

“ _ ‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have never loved at all’ _ , right?” Kara mumbled the famous quote and Alex let out a little laugh.

“In a way, you’re being dishonest and keeping the choice from her,” Alex said and Kara narrowed her eyes. When had Alex gotten so smart? It must have been Kelly.

“Maybe she would act differently if she knew that you loved her, maybe she wouldn’t, but you’re only giving her half the information and that isn’t fair. You can’t be truthful to your friendship like you wanted and promised if you keep this from her,” Alex pointed out, reminding Kara of her vow to Lena once they tentatively started their friendship again.

“You think I should tell her,” Kara said. The mere thought of it sent tremors through the architecture of her chest.

“Yes,” Alex answered simply. “You have nothing to lose.”

Kara lifted her head to give Alex the stink eye, waiting until Alex looked at her and snorted, before lowering her head again. Her sister just chuckled.

“Lena loves you. If you think that telling her you love her is going to drive her away, after  _ everything _ you’ve been through, then you give her less credit than she deserves. Do you really think she’d abandon you?”

And Kara couldn’t really argue with that, so damn Alex for using logic against her. Lena wasn’t the kind of person to abandon her friends just because of something as silly as a crush, and she hadn’t abandoned Kara after the super big reveal, so she wouldn’t leave Kara now. Still, it was a terrifying thought. Almost as paralysing as the thought of Lena leaving her after learning she was Supergirl. Which, to be fair, had actually happened, but only because Kara had delayed the inevitable which made it worse and then had the gall to treat Lena terribly as Supergirl while comforting her as Kara Danvers.

She let out a long sigh and Alex patted her shoulder. “I’ll be here no matter what you decide.”

Kara let herself drown in her thoughts while Alex returned to her phone. For a long time the two were silent, lost in their own worlds but taking comfort in the others' presence.

“Oh, look,” Alex said and she tapped again. “Lena’s going live on Twitter.”

Kara’s head snapped up and she jolted around the table to hover behind Alex and stare at her phone. Alex, who was used to such speed, didn’t even move and instead turned her phone on it’s side so that they could both see the video better.

The first thing that came to Kara’s mind was that she missed her best friend. Lena being in her office was the second thing that Kara noticed. The third thing was that she was very pretty. Her hair was left down, straightened like it had been when they first met. She had her dark lipstick on (the same lipstick that had started it all – Kara’s cheek felt warm) and her eyes were highlighted by the sunlight coming in behind her.

‘ _ Hi, National City _ ,’ Lena said with a hint of a smirk. ‘ _ Lena Luthor here. Just thought I’d clear up a few things _ .’

Kara’s grip tightened on Alex’s chair, enough that the wood creaked beneath her grip and she had to consciously unclench her fingers.

‘ _ Firstly, Supergirl and I are not seeing each other. While I appreciate the support all of you have given human-alien relations and, indeed, woman on woman relationships, I am currently single. It is still so heart-warming to see so much acceptance. It gives me hope for the future _ .’

Lena paused and she reached for something slightly off screen and when she pulled her arm back she was holding a mug. She lifted it slightly and waggled her eyebrows, ‘ _ Yes, I’m drinking tea in the middle of the day. How scandalous, _ ’ she smirked playfully.

‘ _ As for the rumours of Supergirl spending a lot of time around L-Corp, I can confirm that she and I have an important working relationship. We have both saved each other in the past and likely will in the future. Our partnership is very dear to me. I am often called to consult with her on various situations, and a friendship formed from working so closely together and so frequently _ .’

Lena took a little sip of her tea. ‘ _ And yes, I will admit that sometimes she has to drag me out of the office, but that’s what friends are for. As for the statue _ ,’ Lena faltered and flushed a little. ‘ _ I wanted to give something back to National City and on behalf of Supergirl. I commissioned the statue as a thank you, both for saving my life, and for what she has done for the city _ .’ She hesitated a moment. ‘ _ Metropolis has a Superman statue, yet I didn’t hear anyone accusing Mayor Fleming of having an affair with the Man of Steel _ .’

She waited a moment for that to settle in and then continued. ‘ _ It was noted that Supergirl had lipstick on her cheek after her visit to me. We thought we would prank the paparazzi outside. Clearly that failed and I apologise for the subterfuge. It wasn’t our intention to be misleading. The entire situation was taken out of context. We had originally intended to laugh the entire affair off as rumours made up by the press, but the opportunity presented itself to mess with them, and we couldn’t resist. That backfired. _ ’

Alex snorted, and Kara couldn’t help but agree. Yeah, it had failed spectacularly. Though Kara had to wonder what had driven Lena to kiss her on the cheek again and not to mention it. Surely, she was aware of the lipstick mark she had left? Why didn’t she say anything? Kara was more aware of Lena’s lips – lip _ stick! _ – now, more than ever. So how did Lena not know?

‘ _ Supergirl and I have a working partnership that developed into friendship and I am thankful to have her in my life. Though I suspect that woman considers everyone she meets as a friend. _ ’

Kara scoffed. She didn’t consider  _ everyone _ she knew as a friend. Just the special ones.

‘ _We are just friends, and that is all we'll ever be._ _As flattered as I am by her words, though they are taken out of context_ ,’ she gave a devilish smirk. ‘ _I’m in love with someone else_.’

Kara’s hand went through the chair and Alex gave a yelp as bits of wood rained down on her shoulders and back. Kara didn’t pay that any attention, still focused on Lena’s broadcast.

_ What? _ Lena was in love with someone?  _ Who was it?! _ Why hadn’t she told her best friend?! They could have, I don’t know, planned a romantic confession or something! Kara could be a great wing-woman! She could fly! Literally! Who better than Supergirl to help you woo someone? It didn’t matter that Lena loved someone else, as long as she loved! And the person of her affections was sure to find her sublime – Kara could help make them happen! Help make Lena happy!

“Kara!” Alex gasped and shook herself, sending little splinters and chips of wood to the ground where they scattered around Kara’s socked feet.

‘ _ And no, I’m not going to share who it is _ .’

Lena paused for a minute and Kara counted every pulse of her heart as her mind spiralled.  _ Who, who, who, who, who? _

Lena tilted her head, smile shifting into something more professional. ‘ _ Have a nice day, National City. _ ’

Then she was leaning forward and the broadcast ended, freezing on Lena’s beautiful face.

Kara was still in a state of paralysing shock.  _ What in Rao’s name?! _ The shock twisted quickly into anger. Why hadn’t Lena told her? She could help! She could be supportive! She was the woman’s best friend, for Rao’s sake, why didn’t she know! The anger then faded into guilt. Was she such a bad friend that she hadn’t noticed Lena had someone else in her life? Was she so self-centred that she never thought to ask? What did Lena think of her?

She would make it up to her and with that thought she turned around, ready to fly straight to Lena and set things right. She could learn who this person was, learn all about them so she could be a good best friend. She ignored how the thought of it made her stomach twist. Her own affection for Lena didn’t matter when Lena was already in love with someone else. Kara existed for Lena’s happiness. If Lena was happy, Kara would be happy – even if it burned her up from the inside.

“Kara? Where are you going?” Alex asked.

“To Lena!” She reached for her glasses pressing the little button which would allow her suit to materialise. It was an upgrade Lena had thought of, meaning Kara could take her glasses off to shower or sleep and wouldn’t change into the suit. It only materialised when she pressed the little button on the rim.

“Is that a good idea?” Alex was sceptical and Kara turned back to face her.

Alex’s eyes were wide but she was trying to school her expression into something more neutral.

“Why?” It wasn’t like Kara could admit to loving Lena now, so what was there to lose? She could learn who Lena loved, get Alex to do a thorough background check, and then visit them as Supergirl to make sure they knew that Lena had powerful allies and that if they even thought of hurting her, Supergirl would be very unhappy.

“Lena Luthor just did a broadcast explaining how she and Supergirl aren’t together and then Supergirl goes to visit her?”

_ Ah _ , Kara grimaced. That could be a problem. The skies had been absent of the heroine, and her sudden return at L-Corp after Lena’s message would be suspicious. Even Kara could see that.

Pouting she settled back against the table. She could call Lena instead! And then she realised that her phone had been crushed in her hand when she had realised what she had done.

“Do you have a new phone for me?” Yes, she was a grown ass woman who could afford her own phone but in her line of work she tended to break them at least once a month, so the DEO provided them for her. They were also encrypted and had tracking software, just in case.

Alex dug one out of her pocket. “Lena did some upgrades.”

Kara took it and stared at it. It didn’t look any different. Maybe it was a little heavier but that was– she gave an experimental squeeze before brightening. Now  _ that _ was different. Grinning she tightened her grip in small increments and the phone was still in one piece. It took a considerable amount of strength before it started to creak under the pressure and Kara loosened her hold. She wouldn’t be breaking this phone on accident.

“Awesome,” she whispered and darted off to find her SIM card, which had miraculously survived getting crushed in her hand. She plugged it in and waited a minute for her service provider to pick up her chip, and when it did the notifications came in.

Kara watched them come in with increasing despair before putting the phone down. She had kept alerts for Lena and for Supergirl and in her absence they had piled up. Even Nia and James had warned her she was live, but it had been too late. There were a few messages from Lena too, and she felt instantly guilty for seemingly ignoring her best friend. She really was the worst.

**James Olsen:** Kara! You’re live! Stop talking!

**James Olsen:** Seriously! You’re being recorded!

**Nia Nal:** OMG!

**Nia Nal:** Kara!

_ Missed call from  _ **_Lena Luthor <3_ **

_ Missed call from  _ **_Lena Luthor <3_ **

_ Missed call from  _ **_Lena Luthor <3_ **

_ Missed call from  _ **_Alex <3_ **

_ Missed call from  _ **_Nia Nal_ **

_ Missed call from  _ **_Lena Luthor <3_ **

_ Missed call from  _ **_Lena Luthor <3_ **

_ Missed call from  _ **_James Olsen_ **

_ Missed call from _ **_Lena Luthor <3_ **

**Lena Luthor <3: ** Kara, I’m not mad. I promise. Call me so we can talk about it?

**Lena Luthor <3: ** Please don’t ignore me. I’d like to talk about it.

**Lena Luthor <3: ** I’m sorry.

**Lena Luthor <3:** Kara, I didn’t mean to make things worse. I just thought it could be funny. I’m sorry. Please call me back.

There was a gap in the messages by a day and then there was the final message.

**Lena Luthor <3:** Hi, Kara. I see you broke your phone. Please ignore my earlier texts. I’m sorry I helped blow things out of context. I’m not mad at what you said. I’d like to talk about it soon. Call me when you can, darling. <3

Oh, Rao! The swirling in her chest at the pet name and heart emoji at the end suddenly made sense and she slumped onto the chair.

“What am I going to do?” She asked aloud to the universe. Maybe it could help her one last time. After everything it had taken from her, maybe it could give her something back.

Alex was quiet for a long while, dark eyes thoughtful. “I still think you should tell her. Let me finish!” She added quickly, raising a hand to halt Kara’s outburst.

“Who’s to say that this person she loves isn’t you?” Kara frowned but didn’t answer and Alex continued. “And even if it isn’t, what if she didn’t know that you were an option? That you loved her? Have you ever been open about your sexuality?”

“We didn’t really have sexuality on Krypton,” Kara recited automatically. “Our mates were selected for us by the matrix to ensure–”

“I got it, I got it, I got it!” Alex cut her off, waving her hand in a sharp cutting motion. Kara pouted. “So Lena knows this, yes?”

Kara gave a little nod.

“But did she know that you might be into women?”

Kara opened her mouth, hesitated, grimaced and slumped back into her chair.

“So,” Alex continued, taking Kara’s silence as an answer, “Lena knows you might be open to the idea but as you have never expressed any interest in the opposite sex, thinks you aren’t an option.”

“It wasn’t something we ever talked about.”

Alex let out a little sigh and shook her head.

“What?” Kara was a little confused now. Was there something wrong with not talking about your exes with your friend?

“So, she doesn’t know you are an option, let alone that you have feelings for her, so she never brings up her own feelings for you because she is afraid of rejection and doesn’t want to lose you.”

Kara shook her head. “Who would reject her?! She’s amazing!”

Alex looked at her squarely for a long moment before reaching across the table. Kara took her hand automatically.

“That’s almost the exact thing I said to Maggie when she was dumped.” She let that statement sink in for a moment and gave Kara’s fingers a little squeeze.

_ Oh _ .

Kara knew how that had gone with Maggie. Alex had told her everything leading up to and during their relationship, so Kara knew how a Danvers sister sounded when quietly pining for a girl they thought was incredible.

“I’d say it was a lifetime of neglect and abuse that makes her so closed off, but I’m not a psychologist. You’d have to ask Kelly.” Alex paused. “ _ Don’t _ ask Kelly.”

And Kara wouldn’t – at least not without speaking in hypotheticals. Kelly was a bit too close to all of them to be a proper therapist without ethics getting in the way.

“If she is in love with you, she didn’t know you were an option, doesn’t know you’re in love with her and is afraid of your rejection.  _ Of course _ she wouldn’t tell you then. But that woman loves you.”

And Kara had to agree with Alex. Lena could have anyone she wanted if she let them get close to her, but she was so wary of people because she’d been hurt so much. Kara’s heart ached at the thought. She didn’t want her to hurt ever again. She just wanted to keep her safe, happy, and loved for the rest of her life. It was what she deserved.

“Oaky,” she took a long, steading breath and Alex started.

“Okay?”

Kara nodded bravely. “Okay. I’ll tell her.”

~*~

“Lena,” Kara greeted the moment she landed on Lena’s balcony that evening, Alex’s words ringing in her head.

“Kara?” The brunette was curled up on the couch, legs tucked under her and she had a glass of wine on hand, lipstick marks on the rim which suggested she’d started the moment she got home, as she read a book. There was a gaslit fire next to her, giving her enough light to read by, and the room behind her had its own light on.

“I need– I just– You need to–” Kara stumbled over her words, trying to find the right ones. It wasn’t like writing. When she wrote, the words came to her with ease but when she spoke, the fact that English was not her mother tongue was obvious (especially when she was nervous). The words felt clunky and wrong as she spoke them, and she trailed off to curse in Kryptonian.

It wasn’t hard to say, just three little words and then she would know, and Kara could face whatever came afterwards.

“Kara,” Lena rose to her feet, brow crinkling and she set her glass down and almost tossed her book away in her haste. Kara’s heart ached at seeing her and she had to wonder how she hadn’t realised that it was  _ love _ that made it dance when she thought of Lena. A few days without her had been too long and she was looking all the more beautiful for it. Surely it wasn’t possible that Lena grew more beautiful by the day? Yet here she was, looking as beautiful as ever. She was wearing soft looking grey sweatpants and fluffy bed-socks, wrapped in a light sweater over an old MIT shirt. The fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra was instantly obvious, the line of her chest tight with the weight of her breasts and she didn’t seem to realise Kara’s wandering eyes as she wound the sweater around her body.

“Breathe, darling. What is it? What do you need? What can I do?”

And that was the problem, wasn’t it? Lena's mere existence made everything better. She brightened every day, every thought, every storm cloud. She’d call it faith if she didn’t know that what Kara felt for Lena dwarfed religion, or maybe what she felt for Lena was its own devotion. It honestly felt like that sometimes – the encompassing need to see Lena smile, to hear her heartbeat thrum happily in her ears, to make her laugh, to have her look at her as though there was no one else in the world.

Lena had come closer while she stood trying to find words, fingers curled into claws at her side, digging into her palms. Lena had her hair down from its ponytail and it fell in soft waves around her back, though some curls had fallen over her shoulders. Her lipstick was a little smudged, and she’d made no move to remove her makeup, but she looked soft in the starlight and the flickering of the flames casting ribbons of gold and amber over the porcelain of her skin.

“Kara?” Her voice was soft, just above a whisper as though she were worried about startling Kara. As if she would cause her any distress, as though her very presence wasn’t calming Kara, even as her heart raced at what she was intending to do.

Rao, she was so scared, truly  _ petrified _ of Lena’s reaction. She could handle eight-foot tall murderous aliens and taking care of robbers was a walk in the park. Even alien weaponry was a no brainer now that she had Lena’s tech on her side, and she never had to fear Kryptonite again. But the thought of Lena’s rejection, of her best friend turning away or worse, cutting her out of her life completely, was suffocating. She could feel the night starting to close in around her, the shadows growing longer and deeper.

Her heart was pounding in her ears, drowning out all other sounds of the city, even trying to drown out the heartbeat of the woman in front of her. But Lena’s heart was her own lighthouse, both her love and the organ itself, and Kara focused on its steady pulse.  _ Ehl:divi. _ Lena was her starlight. She could do this.

_ Thump. Thump. Thump. _

She drew a long breath. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t be– I can’t–”

“Hey,” Lena was reaching out for her now and Kara allowed the touch, ached for it, yearned for the touch to ground her to the present. “It’s okay. Whatever it is, we’ll get through it together.”

If only that were true, if only she could see what would be, see the outcome of this conversation and decide if offering her heart to the woman before her would liberate it or break it. At that, she came to a sudden realisation. Lena already  _ had _ her heart, whether she was aware of it or not, and Kara was tired of the uncertainty, of the aching in her chest when Lena was so close and not being able to act on the longing in her heart. There was safety in ignorance; she didn’t have to confront any truth, didn’t have to face Lena’s rejection, or maybe her reciprocation. It was that hope, that faint kindle of hope that made her speak.

“I–” Kara swallowed harshly and closed her eyes. She couldn’t look Lena in the eyes for this. She wasn’t brave enough. And yet, if she didn’t look at Lena, she wouldn’t see how the firelight turned strands of her hair auburn, how her eyes seemed to glow green with their concern and affection, how her lips were parted into a gentle, kind smile while she waited for an answer.

The heat from Lena’s touch made her skin tingle, and she could almost feel it sparking through her bloodstream.

“Kara, whatever it is, you can tell me.” Lena intertwined their fingers. Her touch was gentle and sure, soft and comforting,  _ giving _ , like the woman herself. Kara let her own fingers curl around the silent offer of strength. “ _ You’re _ my hero, remember? Nothing is going to change that.” 

Her voice was so soft, so kind, so… Kara could have wept but instead she trembled, relying on the soft touch of her best friend to give her strength.

“I don’t want to be your friend,” she breathed into the air between them and was certain her exhale was sucked between Lena’s lips with her gasp. Alex, her sister, had better be right. Alex, who had never let her down before, had better be right because if she wasn’t and Kara lost Lena… “I can’t be around you anymore.”

She could feel the slight movements in the air as Lena prepared to jerk away, to recoil from the truth Kara had finally spoken. Her heart stopped. For one horrifying moment Lena’s heart faltered, and Kara’s fingers tightened.

“I can’t carry on and pretend like I don’t– that I–  _ argh _ ,” she cut herself off with a furious growl as Lena’s heart rate began to speed up.

The heartbeat between them pounded like a leaf stuck in a storm, aimless and striking everything around it with no control or thought for stillness, and Kara took strength from the pulse she could feel at the tip of her fingers.

“English is stupid,” she shook her head and took a deep breath, hardly aware of Lena trying to tug her hand away.  _ “:Zhao rrip khap.” _

Kara Zor-El was fluent in a half dozen languages, most not spoken on Earth, and so she used the only words she knew, words she’d never spoken in her mother tongue. For the first time on Earth, the words  _ ‘I love you,’ _ were spoken in the Kryptonian tongue by a true Kryptonian.

_ “:Zhao?” _ Lena gasped after a long moment, her inhale so strong that Kara could feel it ghosting across her lips. Her heartbeat was like thunder in her ears. It finally gave her the strength to open her eyes. Lena’s face was pale, brows vanishing into her hair and her eyes were wide.

“ _ :Zhao _ , not,” she swallowed and Kara could hear it over the pounding of their hearts as Kara’s shifted to meet Lena’s. “Not...  _ shovuh _ ?”

_ “:Zhao rrip khap,” _ Kara said firmly, staring directly into Lena’s eyes and seeing her own reflection in them. She was looking scared and she was absolutely  _ terrified _ on the inside, but there was a faint twist to her lips that spoke of love, a soft crease to her brow that showed trust, a glint in her eyes that revealed her hope.

_ “:Zhao rrip khap. :Zhao rrip khap. :Zhao rrip khap,” _ Kara repeated, bringing her hands up to cup Lena’s cheeks.

Lena hadn’t run yet, in fact she was still staring at her with lips parted and eyes wide, but there was something soft and beautiful dawning across her face, slow and strong like the approaching sun.

_ “:Zhao rrip khap.” _

And she wasn’t scared anymore, not as a tearful smile revealed itself and Lena’s heart did a somersault in her chest. And how had she not known that the joyous music that Lena’s heart was making was love, that the song it sang whenever Kara was near was love?

Lena let out a shaky laugh, eyes wet but shining with absolute wonder, and Kara had had people look at Supergirl with awe in their eyes, but there was something profound and powerful about having Lena Luthor look at her, at  _ Kara _ , with such reverence.

“Kara,” Lena reached out with a trembling hand and touched it to Kara’s cheek, and Kara nuzzled into the embrace like some sort of unconscious response as though she’d done it a thousand times. 

_“Nahn khap’i zhor rrip.”_ _You are my heart._ Lena’s hand trailed over the soft skin of her jaw and traced it back to her nape, where she kept it as a guide as she reached up.

Kara knew what was going to happen before it did and she let out a gasp, hearth thrumming with anticipation just as Lena’s was. Their sound of their combined heartbeats settled in her chest and her skin tingled, her blood dancing through her body as Lena’s face and lips – the very thing that had started this – got closer until her exhale was drifting across Kara’s lips.

It was with gentle pressure that Lena pressed their lips together, straining on her tiptoes to reach Kara’s mouth as she let out a little sigh. There were no great fireworks, no big bang and the world kept spinning, but something settled into place. The universe, which had been so cruel as to rob her of her people, her planet, her family and culture, had offered her something in forgiveness –Lena Luthor. For the first time in almost two decades on Earth, Kara Zor-El, the last daughter of Krypton, came home.

Their kiss was gentle, a faint pressure, but Kara’s body reacted before her mind and she moved her hands, sliding them down the material of Lena’s sweater and around her waist, pulling her closer. Lena gasped at the sudden action and Kara ducked her head, uniting their lips again, but she couldn’t kiss her properly through her smile. Her heart was soaring, happiness flooding her body with its own light and she let out a happy sigh. The organ in her chest was singing, letting out joyous ribbons of sound and painting the sky with colour.

_ “,Rao, :zhao khap rrip,” _ she pulled back just long enough to murmur those words and Lena’s hand tightened in reflex, pulling Kara back to her lips and resting a palm over Kara’s wildly beating heart with a little hum.

Kara accepted what she was being given, paying no thought to the city beyond them – they were the only two people to exist here and now. They were the only two people in the universe.

Lena’s nails scratched lightly at the fine hairs at her nape and Kara shivered. When she finally opened her eyes, having not even registered their closing, Lena was smiling at her. It wasn’t her toothy smile, or her political smile – it wasn’t even the smile Kara had dubbed as  _ hers _ . This was a different smile.

Lena’s eyes were glowing, a bright green, lit by the firelight behind her and her hair was cast in amber light, giving her the impression of a halo. Her lips were parted and her lipstick was smudged.  _ Kara _ had done that, and a  _ thrill _ chased that thought through Kara’s body with a shiver.

“So,” Kara let out a sigh as she pressed her forehead to Lena’s, breathing in her scent, calming her heart by listening to Lena's heart, which had been doing cartwheels, slowly steady itself until its beat was strong and firm, happy.

“You’re in love with me?” The jealousy of Lena’s mysterious love interest had faded into a giddy joy.

Lena let out a scoff, eyes closed and she hummed. “I filled your office with flowers and brought your workplace. I think I  _ like _ you just a little bit.”

Kara’s heart did a little happy dance at the words. 

“You should have said something.” Maybe if Lena had said something they could have been doing this a lot sooner, but Kara was ecstatic at where she was now and wouldn’t change it for the world. Lena gave a little chuckle and the sound roused the hairs on the back of her neck – or maybe it was the gentle caress Lena was giving to the fine hairs there.

“And miss out on your fumbling? You were  _ so _ jealous.” Her words were light and airy, but Kara caught the undercurrent of anxiety there and knew that Alex had been right so she pressed even closer. Lena hadn’t been loved until she’d been loved by Kara Zor-El Danvers, and if she’d thought she understood it before, just wait until Kara could act on all of those unknown feelings. Lena would never doubt the power of love ever again, would never doubt that she was worthy of love ever again.

She nearly pouted, but she was too ecstatic to even try twisting her lips into anything that wasn’t a goofy grin. “You’re mean.”

“Mhm, but I love you,” Lena corrected as she pulled back to look up into her eyes. Kara’s smile pulled even wider, certain she was the definition of smitten as she looked down at Lena.

_“Pahdh khap’i lor rrip.”_ _You make my heart race._

Lena’s grin stretched until it turned mischievous. “Not yet it isn’t.”

There was promise in those words, delicious  _ intent _ behind them, and Kara kissed her like she meant it.

Grinning into the kiss and pulling Lena impossibly closer, Kara had a sudden thought that yeah, as bad as angst was, it was always better when followed by a happy ending.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed it, Comment and Kudos, and make sure to check out all the other SCBB Fics and Art work and show these amazingly talented creators some love <3


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